Orbital double sphere workshop.

Void · 2012-03-24 11:30:58

Even though it appears that current thinking I see implies that Phobos and Demos do not so much fit into plans for a vist to Mars or a settlement of Mars, if there is no objection I wish to catalog a notion I had some time ago about working in a zero gee evironment in proximity of a airless little world. (Phobos, Demos, Asteroids, and so on).

This notion supposes that their could be some economic gain by manipulation of the materials of Phobos and/or Demos, and that this could be of assistance in the visiting or settling of Mars.

1) The outer sphere, would have solar cells on its outer surface, and entry doors and I suppose communication and observation devices, and I suppose places to dock spacecraft. The outer sphere defines the size of the object also.

2) The inner sphere is there to provide a fulcrum for mobile devices which can navagate the "Channel" defined by the space between the outer sphere and the inner sphere.

Those mobile devices would perhaps but not necessarily be like a disc with one convex and one concave side.

Humans would live inside of these mobile disks. The disks could rotate on their axis. They could also move within the channel using either tires which grip the inside of the outer wall or the outside of the inner wall and probabbly both. Or maglev methods could be used to inductively "Motor" about.

I expect that the "Channel" will not be pressurized, but the mobile disks will be. They could have a volume as small as a space capsule or as big as a house. 1, 2, or more persons could be inside of one. Think of it as a multiperson pressure suit. Hosting prolonged life support including the handling of human waste products, either directly recycling inside, or storing for a futher action outside. The disks would also have some radiation protection. Perhaps normal throughout the disk, and perhaps a "Storm shelter" for the bedrooms.

Electrical power would be supplied by motor brushes. The outside sphere could be at one electrical potential, and the inside at another electrical potential, and each sphere would be a current carrying device. So the disks would have plenty of power as long as the spheres were electrified.

The circumferance of the disks would include robotic arms. As I said, the disks would have freedom of mobility within the spherical channel, to rotate, and to move to any other unblocked, unoccupied location within the spherical channel.

Two of the disks could work with each other like two or more hands do, or like two or more humans do.

The "Channel" would also be a relatively safe place for a person wearing a counterpressure suit to work as well.

I said that the "Channel" would likely be unpressurized, but it could retain leaked gasses, such as the venting of airlocks on the mobile disks, or the perspiration of a human in a counterpressure suit, and so that material might be recoverable, by a collection device.

Another purpose of the "Spherical Channel" is that it would tend to inhibit tools, and fragments of raw and processed materials from drifiting away into other Martian orbits, becomming "Space Junk".

The channel could also be well lighted, it would serve as a micrometeroite shield, and would have moderated temperatures within.

The space inside of the inner sphere, could serve as a storrage facility to store tools not in use, or bags of soil from Phobos and/or Demos.

Just what economic value added service would be performed, I guess is a thing to figure out. Rocket fuel, I am guessing, but if this was done before the settlement of Mars, then tools and materials could be manufactured, and then landed on the surface.

Anyway that is about it. I think it could work in the "L" locations of the Earth/Moon as well, or even in orbit of the Moon, if it was affordable to give continuous orbital correction for the device.

Last edited by Void (2012-03-24 11:46:05)

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#1 2012-03-24 11:30:58

Orbital double sphere workshop.

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