[TML] Environmental domes

[Tom Naro]

Tom Naro tomnaro at yahoo.com Wrote:
>Hans Henrik Rancke-Madsen rancke at diku.dk wrote:
>> I like to put under environmental domes, preferrably domes that are 
>>large enough to have agricultural fields and sculptured landscapes -- maybe
>>even national parks -- beneath them. I'd like them to be a mile high and 
>>cover an area the size of a... what's the American equivalent of a shire?

>>My problem is that I have no idea what the maximum plausible size of such 
>>a dome is at various tech levels. I've thought about finding out the size 
>>of the domes we can build on Earth today and then increase the diameter by 
>>some factor (2? 3? 5? 10?) per tech level

>>Anyone know what we can achieve today and have any opinions about what 
>>should be possible at higher TLs?

>The best links for the kind of dome you would probably need is 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geodesic_dome and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domed_city

>I have helped construct a small temporary dome for an outdoor show.  It was a steel frame and a canvas liner. It was about 30 feet in diameter and about 40 feet tall. The struts were about 5 feet long. It took about 4 hours to put up and about an hour to take it down.  All the materials fit into the back of a large pickup truck (the liner sections were the most dificult parts to manage.)

>You might be able to get the affect you want using multiple domes that intersect.  It might look something like this 
http://www.geodesics-unlimited.com/planetarium.htm

Oops! Switch those dimensions: 40 foot diameter, 30 feet tall (roughly, based on my memory)


       
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