XPost: sci.space.policy   
   From: jimdavis2@earthlink.net   
      
   Lawrence Gales wrote:   
      
   > For the 1st colony I select 1500 feet in major diameter and 43   
   > feet in   
   >      minor diameter, so using strict scaling it should be   
   >      (1/4)*(1/10)*(1/10) = 1/400 of the mass of the Stanford   
   >      torus (the last (1/10) occurs because the tube would be   
   >      1/10 as thick as well as 1/10 as wide).  This yields a   
   >      structural mass of 625 tons, but we will set it at 1000   
   >      tons to be conservative.   
      
   Some comments:   
      
   1. You've gone from 1 rpm from the original Stanford design to 2 rpm   
   in your scaled down design to maintain 1 g. That will probably not be   
   acceptable.   
      
   2. 1000 tons is about 5 times the mass of ISS and yet you intend to   
   accomodate 200 people?   
      
   3. 1000 tons is about 4 times the mass of the Airbus A380 which cost   
   about $12 billion to develop and build and yet you estimate your   
   first torus cost at $3 billion?   
      
   Jim Davis   
      
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