lal_truckee wrote:
[...]
It's not even a fundamental design problem. I think a badly piloted
ship could endanger the whole space station fairly easily.

Only a poorly-designed "space station."

Just like properly designed and constructed up-to-code high rises don't
fall down when hit by an airplane.

Building codes don't say anything about aircraft impact,
other than the ones for nuclear reactor safety domes.

It's a generally accepted design feature of large highrise
buildings that they should survive the impact forces of
a jetliner crash. Stuff thought likely enough to end up
in building codes usually has a lot more rigorous thought
attached to analyzing the consequences, such as post-impact
fires and the like.

One of the difficulties is that the design of buildings has
to take into account a lifespan of 100 years for successful
large buildings; when planning for things to change, it's
hard to predict in 1907 how large and how much fuel the
A380 jetliner will carry. Or how large an earthquake fault
will turn up near your bridge.

Don't forget those space habitats will be constructed by low-cost
contractors with lots of corners cut.

Or by the eventual residents, who are going to be doing some
tradeoffs about creature comforts and cost and the like, but are
monumentally disincented to cut corners.


-george william herbert