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New Colonies



 
 
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  #1  
Old March 1st 06, 12:40 AM posted to sci.astro.amateur
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Default New Colonies

Currently as a bit of a space fantic I have spent a great deal of time
reseaching space colony technoloies and ideas. As well the technologies to
get us there. I have some great ideas based on that reseach. If anyone is
interested please let me know.




  #3  
Old March 1st 06, 04:43 AM posted to sci.astro.amateur
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Default New Colonies


Here's a question along those lines:

What happens to a large body of say a Colonies Drinking Water if its
used as Radiation Shielding?

For example (and please excuse the OT nature of this thread) if a below
the surface habitat had a cavern overhead filled with a large amout of
water and it had a dual use as drinking/agricultural supply as well as
a mass to aid with blocking unwanted radiation- what would happen to
the water itself when exposed to said radiation?

Would elecrolysis be the the main problem? Perhaps ionization or the
formation of 'Heavy Water"? (And would that be a problem?)


TBerk

  #4  
Old March 1st 06, 04:50 AM posted to sci.astro.amateur
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Default New Colonies

TBerk wrote:
Here's a question along those lines:

What happens to a large body of say a Colonies Drinking Water if its
used as Radiation Shielding?

For example (and please excuse the OT nature of this thread) if a below
the surface habitat had a cavern overhead filled with a large amout of
water and it had a dual use as drinking/agricultural supply as well as
a mass to aid with blocking unwanted radiation- what would happen to
the water itself when exposed to said radiation?

Would elecrolysis be the the main problem? Perhaps ionization or the
formation of 'Heavy Water"? (And would that be a problem?)



It wouldn't be very efficient to transport large quantities of
water versus recycling it. Still the idea has merit.

Formation of heavy water? I don't think so!
  #5  
Old March 1st 06, 10:41 AM posted to sci.astro.amateur
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Default New Colonies

TBerk wrote:

Here's a question along those lines:

What happens to a large body of say a Colonies Drinking Water if its
used as Radiation Shielding?


Very little provided that it is reasonably pure. You just need enough of
it to provide adequate shielding.

Sodium in sea or brackish water might be a bit of a problem (neutron
activation makes it into a nasty radioisotope). Drinking water would be
OK, deionised would be better.

For example (and please excuse the OT nature of this thread) if a below
the surface habitat had a cavern overhead filled with a large amout of
water and it had a dual use as drinking/agricultural supply as well as
a mass to aid with blocking unwanted radiation- what would happen to
the water itself when exposed to said radiation?

Would elecrolysis be the the main problem? Perhaps ionization or the
formation of 'Heavy Water"? (And would that be a problem?)


You would see a faint ghostly blue glow from Cherenkov radiation -
particles passing through the water travelling faster than the speed of
light in the medium shed energy in the electromagnetic equivalent of a
sonic boom. Not much else would happen. Astronauts have even seen such
flashes in their eyes as cosmic rays pass through them.

Regards,
Martin Brown
  #6  
Old March 1st 06, 11:26 PM posted to sci.astro.amateur
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Default New Colonies


Martin Brown wrote:
TBerk wrote:

Here's a question along those lines:

What happens to a large body of say a Colonies Drinking Water if its
used as Radiation Shielding?


Very little provided that it is reasonably pure. You just need enough of
it to provide adequate shielding.


In this model it is an enourmous amount. Concider a small lake or so.
There are some variables that dictate how much is 'enough'. There is
likely to be some amount of bedrock or other earthen material above it
also adding to the shielding.


Sodium in sea or brackish water might be a bit of a problem (neutron
activation makes it into a nasty radioisotope). Drinking water would be
OK, deionised would be better.

snippage
You would see a faint ghostly blue glow from Cherenkov radiation -
particles passing through the water traveling faster than the speed of
light in the medium shed energy in the electromagnetic equivalent of a
sonic boom. Not much else would happen. Astronauts have even seen such
flashes in their eyes as cosmic rays pass through them.

Regards,

Ø Martin Brown

OK. Thx Martin

And Sam- I'd think in a Colony of this sort the idea would be to make
use of water already there as opposed to transporting it. I'm
envisioning a great big cavern, perhaps sealed on the inside with a
ceramic type material to avoid too much leakage into the surrounding
stone, and filled with distilled H2O.


TBerk

  #7  
Old March 2nd 06, 06:28 AM posted to sci.astro.amateur
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Default New Colonies

"Space Settlements: A Design Study"
NASA SP-413, 1977
Edited by:
- Richard D. Johnson, NASA Ames Research Center and
- Charles Holbrow, Colgate University

Basically, packages of material are accelerated from the lunar surface
via an electrical rail gun to a Langrangian point, where processing of
the material takes place. A torus habitat is with made from the
aluminumand titanium, and the slag is formed into a passive shield
wall a few feet outside the torus. A mirror like a giant CD floats
above the torus to direct sunlight onto the hub, where a ring of
mirrors redirect the light into the transparent, hubward side of the
torus. The torus is about a kilometer in diameter.

The book goes into a cylindrical design, too.

Interesting, thought-provoking read. It won't happen in my lifetime.

On Tue, 28 Feb 2006 23:40:01 GMT, wrote:

Currently as a bit of a space fantic I have spent a great deal of time
reseaching space colony technoloies and ideas. As well the technologies to
get us there. I have some great ideas based on that reseach. If anyone is
interested please let me know.




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- Dale Gombert (SkySea at aol.com)
122.38W, 47.58N, W. Seattle, WA
http://flavorj.com/~skysea
 




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