It will not work is all I can say. Remember there was going to be some
trials of this approach on manned space stations, but the mass distribution
is the killer I think. Whether you could damp this out in any way is highly
unlikely. also, I cannot imagine anyone wanting to live in such an
environment. They want to be able to see out, and seeing out of a rotating
structure would be extremely nauseating, in the real sense.


After all, I notice on the iss, that they go to great lengths to stop
excercise machines making the structure move and its not just to preserve
experimental samples either.

We need to find out how mass and gravity actually work, I fancy, or learn
to live without it for long persiods so that we can function in gravity
after prolonged flights, or find some wy to get to places fast.

With Quantum entanglement apparently being information faster than light,
their might be a glimmer of hope in the latter, pun intended.

Brian

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"John Doe" wrote in message
...
This year (2010) the russians will send their Leonov ship to Jupiter to
recover the Discovery ship (the one with HAL in it). This ship appears
to have a fixed spinal structure, and a rotating structure at about
midship.

Babylon 5, to be built in the 23rd century, will have a rotating central
cylinder, but a fixed structure that will hold solar arrays for instance.


Are such structures realistic ? Is it possible to maintain proper
attitude/orientation of the fixed structure attached to a rotating one ?

Are airtight rotating joints allowing movement from pressurized rotating
living space to fixed living space possible ?

More importantly, is it realistic to have a smoothly rotating structure
despite imperfect mass distribution in the rotating structrure ?

In a Babylon 5 scenario, an imbalance at just one end of the cylinder
would have very interesting side effects on the whole structure.


Or is balance easily achievable with some accelerometres couples to
powerful water pumps to shift counterweights quickly enough to make such
imbalances imperceptible to occupants ?