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#26 2016-10-20 02:01:16

karov
Member
From: Bulgaria
Registered: 2004-06-03
Posts: 953

Re: Artificial Suns and how to make them

Tom,

btw, carbon incandescent filaments charged as elecrodynamic tethers from planetary / brown dwarf dynamos fit quite nicely with optimization of the emitted light if sheath-ed with rotating colony.

Like.: http://www.iase.cc/openair.htm - aka "Bishop rings" which seamlessly may grow into macaroni hab of arbitrary length.

Using orbital rings the linear electric 'lampage' could be provided with current not from deorbiting mass but from despinning the big central body.

like this.:

[image]https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ … ng.svg.png[/image]

where the red rectangles are the habitats.

At the lowest points the orbital rings could in fact dip into the atmosphere and to exchange mass - to excavate up and to download.

The carbon illumination filament centered as a colony's axis would be the stator and the orbital ring the rotor of a massive electric generator converting the planetary spin into helluva electric power...

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#27 2016-10-20 09:05:49

Tom Kalbfus
Banned
Registered: 2006-08-16
Posts: 4,401

Re: Artificial Suns and how to make them

316px-OrbitalRing.svg.png
The trick is how do you build it? The International Space Station orbits at 400 kilometers above the Earth's surface. Not the idea appears to be to build two space elevators on opposite ends of the Earth. Preferably over the equator.
world_map_by_tomkalbfus-dalq8gq.png
Here are two locations at opposite ends of the Earth where such elevators may be located. coincidently, its hard to find two such areas along the equator that are also on dry land, there are probably the best locations for these elevators. Now if the elevators are to be 400 kilometers high, we need a belt that is in orbit at an altitude that is 400 km above the equator, that also means it has a radius of 400 km + 6400 km = 6800 km, the circumference of the belt would thus be 2 * 6800 km * Pi = 42,725.66 km. If we assign a mass of 10 kg per meter then 1 kilometer would have a mass of 10 metric tons, the entire belt would thus have a mass of 427,256.6 metric tons. this belt would support two space elevators at opposite ends of the Earth. I suppose this would be useful for Venus and other bodies that don't rotate much. You could do this with Saturn, it would be a much bigger belt of course, and there is ring material to work with Two tethers can dip into Saturn's atmosphere One can dangle a colony from each of these tethers. You could probably suck in hydrogen and use it to power your fusion reactors.

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#28 2016-10-20 09:14:18

Tom Kalbfus
Banned
Registered: 2006-08-16
Posts: 4,401

Re: Artificial Suns and how to make them

karov wrote:

Yeah.

Like massive maglev bearing.

But I have no idea how to calculate the structure: how thick/massive the non-moving 'topobase' to be etc.

What are the limits?

What if you used tungsten? That is a very dense material, and since weight is not a consideration, I wonder how strong tungsten cables would be? The density of Tungsten is
19.25 g/cm3  or 19.25 tons per cubic meter, it is a very dense material and very tough, We can excavate tunnels within the hull of the cylinder and form ribs that are out of the way. One can have exits and airlocks between the ribs if one wants direct access to space through the floor.
artificial_world_by_tomkalbfus-dal93xu.png

Last edited by Tom Kalbfus (2016-10-20 09:15:27)

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#29 2021-07-24 08:16:48

tahanson43206
Moderator
Registered: 2018-04-27
Posts: 16,749

Re: Artificial Suns and how to make them

For SpaceNut .... it is time for this older topic to return to view...

While the topic itself appears (my first impression) to be about solar objects (like our Sun) I am hoping to restart the topic with something a bit more practical.

Years ago, after World War II, there were a number of war surplus search lights available, and I remember then painting the sky for festivals to the South and North where small cities were located in the rural region where our family lived.  That was when I attended a one room school, to put it into context.

Those search lights were designed to produce light from a hefty electric arc.  Some movie projectors ran on the same technology, but I've only read about that. I never saw one in operation.

With Calliban's initiative to design a hefty 1 Mw fission reactor that can be deployed for 10 years at a time, we can see possibilities for Mars habitation opening that might not have been possible with less robust power sources.

It is in this context that I invite (hopefully learned) discussion of the specific requirements for an "artificial sun" lighting system for large cavernous spaces on Mars.  The spectrum of the Sun is the one we (humans and animals and plants) have "grown up" with, so I would expect an artificial sun to reproduce the beneficial spectra, while eliminating (if possible) the frequencies that serve no useful purpose, such as Ultra Violet ones.

This subtopic is introduced within the larger topic of Terraformation.

This is ** not ** Terraformation ... this would be Terrasimulation, accomplished on the scale of habitats, and not an entire planet.

(th)

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#30 2021-07-24 10:13:34

SpaceNut
Administrator
From: New Hampshire
Registered: 2004-07-22
Posts: 28,747

Re: Artificial Suns and how to make them

For a realistic artificial sun to be created in the openness of space one must look at the movement and buildup of the elements needed to create the mass required to start and sustain fusion. Then what is there to continue to feed it around that new life we have spawned.

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#31 2021-07-24 10:20:55

tahanson43206
Moderator
Registered: 2018-04-27
Posts: 16,749

Re: Artificial Suns and how to make them

For SpaceNut ... I take your hint to not try to move the topic away from the original intent ...

I'll start a new topic dedicated to creating artificial sunlight for habitats (on Earth or off).

(th)

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