That's "taat" as in "tot", because if I wrote "tot" people would pronounce it as "tote (toat)", Habitaatia meaning my made-up word for future places people MIGHT live some day that are not Earth.
A big disappointment for me was seeing the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, in the theaters, as a kid in '66 or '67, thinking we'd actually HAVE space stations in 2001, and then watching as first the Republicans, then the Democrats, cut funding for Space. The cancellation of Apollo 18 ripped my heart out. America seemed to be going backwards in Space Exploration, then Science as well. Damn the US congress, and the "new" deregulated economy-crushing Banking Industry. Short-sighted, both of them. Just a damn shame, all around.
Oh well, there's always hope, I guess. Here are some nice illustrations, not of a lunar colony for a change, but in-space. These certainly didn't happen in 2001, with one, ok, two exceptions, and it's looking good (bad) we won't have truly big structures until 2400 or so, which itself is questionable if the powers that be continue to act like ostriches, or we don't wipe ourselves out with some damned supervirus/bacterium that escapes from a lab.
It's a race!
Anyways, enjoy ...
Tracy Caldwell-Dyson in the
Cupola, observing the Earth below, during
Expedition 24.
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| Description of a rotating wheel space station in Hermann Noordung's The Problem of Space Travel (1929). | | |
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| A NASA engineer takes a walk-in simulated zero gravity around a mock-up of a full-scale, 7.3 m (24 ft) diameter space station in 1964. | |
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| Exterior view of a Stanford torus. Bottom center is the non-rotating primary solar mirror, which reflects sunlight onto the angled ring of secondary mirrors around the hub. Painting by Donald E. Davis. |
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| External view of a Stanford torus with some of the radiation-shielding "chevron" mirrors removed to show interior space. |
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| Interior of a Stanford torus, painted by Donald E. Davis | | | |
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| Interior view showing alternating land and window stripes (Island Three) |
Interior view of the Rama O'Neill cylinder mobile worldlet from the
Arthur C. Clarke Rendezvous with Rama series
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| In Iain M. Banks' fictional Culture universe, an Orbital (sometimes also simply called an O or a small ring) is a purpose-built space habitat forming a massive ring (though much smaller than a ringworld) rotating to simulate gravity. Its inhabitants, often numbering many billions, live on the inside of the ring, where continent-sized 'plates' have been shaped to provide all sorts of natural environments and climates, often with the aim of producing especially spectacular results. |
Incredible! The torus-like space station with the big mirror was a picture of a science book I had when I was 10. The book was called "Tout l'Univers", and it made me want to become a scientific. And you found it:)
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for that
Tout l'Univers = All the Universe ? I tried looking up the book at Amazon, but there were too many entries for too many things. one isteresting fact, I did find a book by Lubos Motl from 2008, called L'Equation Bogdanov (French Edition) [Paperback], here. I had no idea he wrote a book.
ReplyDeleteIn any event, click here for the Wikipedia link to Stanford Torus.
I don't want to even guesstimate the cost of that thing. It's cool, but is it safer than a Lunar colony?
Lubos didn't write that book, but translated it. The Bogdanov twins, Igor and Grischka, were famous popular not scientists but science explainers on TV in the 80's. They made me be keen on science too... Unfortunately they turned into freaks lately as they underwent heavy plastic surgery in their face. Here in France we say now they've turned back into what they always were: extraterrestials. The fact is, they recently published a pitiful book, which has become best-seller, in which they "develop" THEIR theory of the universe. Just take a look at their face somewhere in the Internet (I no longer know how to put links in those posts), and you will know what their theory is all about : the freaky production of two crackpots.
ReplyDeleteBest,
Yes, you're right with the translation:)
ReplyDeleteGot it!
ReplyDeletePleasure for the eyes.
Holy geez, I feel so bad for the people of France to have to look at those two faces. Here in America, we had one of those, Michael Jackson. Between Michael and these two a lesson should be taught to our children as to what drugs can do to you ... they can drive you insane. Very sad.
ReplyDeleteBack to Lunarization. There is a new book out about colonizing the moon that was brought to my attention by Universe Today this morning. You can read about it by clicking here.