[TML] Environmental domes

[Jerry W Barrington]

On 9/4/07 9:40 PM, "Joseph Paul" wrote:

> You might do better with figuring a suspension rig. Imagine a carbon fiber
> tower in the center that anchors suspension cables (diamond rope?) that
> connect  to other towers. Secured to the cables is your barrier material.
> Tough and light weight it drapes gracefully over the cables. It can actually
> be composed of several layers that supply filtration of air, radiation, or
> liquids. Or not. It can self-repair to a limited degree and there are
> contragrav robots for larger repairs. Need more strength? Reinforce it with
> high tech fibers like SilkSteel (TM). This would function like rip stop
> nylon.

Suspension is possible, but at the University I attended, they had an
Olympic size swimming pool under a dome that was inflated.  Fans kept the
pressure inside slightly higher than outside.  It even had cables on the
*outside* to contain it.  The differential only needs to be somewhat more
than the weight of the dome.  Thus 1 PSI higher inside pressure will support
a dome of almost 1 pound per square inch.  In this way, it doesn't matter
much how big the dome is, except that the cables end up with a lot of
tension on them.  Kind of a reverse-suspension system.

As for American counties, there's a lot of variation depending on where you
are.  Brewster Co., in SW Texas next to Mexico covers 6194 sq mi (16039 sq
km).  That's larger than the 3 smallest states!  The "average" county
(Texas' area/245 counties) is 1069 sq mi.

[Yes, I was geek enough to go do the research just for this post.]



On 9/4/07 9:40 PM, Leonard Erickson wrote:

> One such suggestion was for Saturn or some other gas giant with a
> reasonable gravity at an altitude where the atmospheric pressure is
> near normal. The proposal allowed it to be built as large floating
> "cities" that could eventually be joined to form a shell.

If you're keeping it up there by any means other than physical support, it
will be gravitationally unstable.