[TML] Environmental domes

[Joseph Paul]

-----Original Message-----
From: tml-bounces at travellercentral.com
[mailto:tml-bounces at travellercentral.com]On Behalf Of
shadow at shadowgard.com
Sent: Tuesday, September 04, 2007 11:35 AM
To: The Traveller Mailing List
Subject: Re: [TML] Environmental domes


On 4 Sep 2007 at 10:23, Joseph Paul wrote:

> Design this in concentric rings so that you have walls also and then you
> have compartmentalization. You don't lose every one to a puncture.

Have to be one *hell* of a puncture to be much of a problem.

Since most designs *won't* be pressure supported, the flow rate
depends solely on the pressure differential and the size of the hole.

For hole size, it's area that matters. But as the dome gets bigger
the amount of air inside goes up as the cube of the size.

So even for a hole that is bigger, a bigger dome will have longer to
fix it.

Say the hole is the same proportional size. Make the dome twice as
big and while the area of the hole goes up by a factor of 4, the
volume of air goes up by a factor of *8*. So it'll take twice as long
to be a serious loss.

Since the holes are apt to be *smaller* (as fraction of the dome
size) as the size goes up, then you've got even longer to fix things.

A hole a foot across into vacuum is a catastrophe for a a 100 ton
ship. In a dome a hundred meters across, it's bad news. In one 10 km
across, it's a major nuisance. In one 100 km across it's a serious
maintenance item.

<snip county area data>
--
Leonard Erickson (aka shadow)
shadow at shadowgard dot com

Good points Leonard but I wasn't so concerned about keeping things in as I
was with keeping stuff out. Bhopal could be *outside* and you don't want
*any* of that coming in! Does any one have any figures or a breakdown of how
many inhabited planets have tainted/poisonous/vacuum atmospheres in the OTU?
How big a problem is this for the 3I and how has canon handled the 3I's
successful colonisation of such worlds?

Joseph Paul
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