ESG7@DFVLROP1.BITNET (11/17/86)
Both Geoffrey Landis in Vol. 7, No. 37 and Ken Jenks in Vol. 7, No. 45
suggested using tethered space habitats to avoid Coriolis effect
problems. This idea is a good one (though not very original) for
interplanetary spacecraft with mission duration times on the order of a
year. However it doesn't work for space colonies. The problem (as
mentioned in an earlier anti-L5 flame) is radiation shielding.
Shielding mass for many of these space colony dreams is around 30
megatons. You are not going to be able to construct a tether that can
support this sort of mass. If you don't shield your colony with fairly
thick walls of stone it will eventually die from cosmic radiation
poisoning. These dream colonies work by spinning **within** a
stationary stone shield.
Gary Allen
P.S. Apologies again for the double spacing. It's a system bug in
either the EARN or SMTPUSER software and beyond my control.