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we should consider our room, our building, our city...as a space habitat
to be more introversive, independent, sustainable...
The Stanford Torus was the principal design considered by the 1975 NASA Summer Study, which was conducted in conjunction with Stanford University (and published as Space Settlements: A Design Study, NASA Publication SP-413). It consists of a torus or donut-shaped ring that is one mile in diameter, rotates once per minute to provide Earth-normal gravity on the inside of the outer ring, and which can house 10,000 people.
Bernal Sphere agricultural rings seen in cross-section. Farming occurs in the upper layers, and animal husbandry in the lower layers where gravity is a little stronger. Painting by Rick Guidice courtesy of NASA.
The O'Neill Cylinder, designed by Princeton physicist Gerard K. O'Neill, is considerably larger than the other two designs, and is referred to as an "Island 3" or 3rd-generation space colony. The configuration consists of a pair of cylinders, each 20 miles long and 4 miles in diameter. Each cylinder has three land areas alternating with three windows, and three mirrors that open and close to form a day-night cycle inside. The total land area inside a pair of cylinders is about 500 square miles and can house several million people. The cylinders are always in pairs which rotate in opposite directions, cancelling out any gyroscopic effect that would otherwise make it difficult to keep them aimed toward the sun.
Planets exemplify "the tragedy of the commons." They swarm with parasites and degenerate into crowded prisons holding their victims by the force of gravity. A planet is a good place to harbor biodiversity, but the middle of nowhere is a better place to live and work. If every family lives in their own orbital greenhouse, the consequences of their irresponsible behavior do not spread to other greenhouses. When they proliferate beyond the carrying capacity of their greenhouse, their population is reduced by starvation and suffocation.
