Talk:Stanford torus

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[edit] Ringworld

I think a refrence to the Novel Ringword would be apropriate. Perhapse under a Refrenced in fiction type-section? Justin 23:07, 27 December 2005 (UTC). The historical thread begins with the premice that habitats are built with known materials, the Ringworld cannot, nor can many fictional habitats. In the interest of actually getting there I think we should think about known materials and how they may be obtained and used in space. Space construction is difficult because of the frailty and unsuitablity (pardon the pun) of human constructors. I think that before space stations are anything more than an expensive experiment a method of constructing them with robots must be worked out. I think this is possible because robots function best in a simple environment and in the absence of cats. Robots are used for many assembly plants and I believe a fairly complex assembly can be programmed. I propose that, if enough people are interested, we could contribute to a prize for some kind of primative constructor. This would require that someone well known host the prize and that a number of people contribute a small sum. We may have a considerable grace period before cats make it into space, but in fact I think this is an idea thats time has come. 19:55, 29 October 2006 (UTC)gem Selective_laser_sintering might prove to be something that robots could do with relatively little processing of materials since it works with a great variety of substances.

A reference to Ringworld isn't appropriate for this article because the Stanford Torus is a fairly specific design that is very different in scale (and plausibility) to the Ringworld. Rings of one kind or another arise completely naturally when trying to simulate gravity in space; most ring-shaped space structures aren't Stanford tori. -Mark Foskey (talk) 22:00, 22 January 2008 (UTC)

Is Freeside really a torus? If I remember correctly, Gibson describes it as cigar-shaped in Neuromancer. That is, it's pretty much a long cylinder, circular in cross-section, rotating about its long axis. Allister MacLeod 20:55, 4 December 2006 (UTC)

Last night a friend showed me where Gibson uses "The Torus" as one of the names for the archipelago--but I'm still not totally clear on what's where. Is it possible that Freeside is the center of the spindle, the pin in the middle of the top? Allister MacLeod 18:49, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

The reference to Gibson's Freeside being a torus shaped station was something that was bugging me, as in other passages he describes it as a spindle or cigar shaped. So doing some digging and pulling passages from the book I come to the conclusion that it's not Freeside that's torus shaped, but instead the Rastafarian station Zion. I believe the confusion arose from the passage: 'The islands. Torus, spindle, cluster. Human DNA spreading out from gravity's steep well like an oilslick.' Which isn't specifically referring to Freeside, but rather the collection of different habitats within the fifth Lagrange Point. The Torus being Zion, the Spindle being Freeside and an unnamed cluster of other stations. 76.48.58.111 06:20, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Numbers

The Bernal sphere article claims the Torus can house "140,000 people", this article claims a modest "10,000". I smell a little problem. Jafet 15:21, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] What scale?

"that is one mile in diameter" - what type of mile? It should be rewriten in kilometers. Ran4 20:49, 29 June 2007 (UTC)

To reply to the above, do you think that the dimensions should read
a)"1.609344 kilometres in diameter",
b)"1.609344 kilometres (1 mile) in diameter",
or c)"a mile (1.609344 kilometres) in diameter? And anyway, what type of kilometer?Chrlsuk 19:16, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

I rewrote it how i would like to see it, which is "one statute mile (1.6 km) in diameter". The exact size is not important, i see no reason to put that many decimal points in the conversion to kilometers. The miles should come first, with the kilometers in parentheses, because the engineers worked in imperial units. Foobaz·o< 00:53, 27 July 2007 (UTC)
The exact size is extremely important, since there are very specific design criteria which need to be satisfied. The difference between a nautical mile and a statute mile in diameter at 1 rpm means more than a 10% difference in the strength of the fake gravity and the tangential velocity of the torus. --76.224.64.68 21:18, 12 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Halo???

A more accurate paragraph would be: "Bungie's video game series Halo involves orbiting space-station rings completely unlike the Stanford torus model, being approximately four million times larger in diameter." Unless there's something in Halo 3 that I haven't seen that look like a Stanford torus - the Halo installation itself isn't a torus, it's a ribbon. There's no roof, and no mirrors.

In fact, I shall delete the reference here to Halo, on the grounds that it's entirely irrelevant to this article. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.188.147.34 (talk • contribs) 10:14, 23 August 2007

I agree, thanks for removing it. Foobaz·o< 10:43, 23 August 2007 (UTC)
Halo is a torus. It has a 3-dimensional cross-section and it is a uniform regular closed loop. Not that it matters for this article, because it's not a Stanford torus. --76.224.64.68 21:20, 12 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Babylon 5 not a torus

I removed the following:

  • In the sci fi TV series Babylon 5, The human race use space stations based on the Stanford Torus around Earth and most of the worlds that Earth has colonized.

on the grounds that the colony doesn't look at all toroidal, and the interiors don't have the open air quality that was intended for the ST. Mark Foskey (talk) 21:57, 22 January 2008 (UTC)