Pre-Christmas Chat with Aaron

Ed Kolis · #1 December 9th, 2004, 04:22 PM

Hmm... let me guess... no, it can't be just a flat ring along the ecliptic like Saturn's rings so the world is in perpetual twilight, that's not innovative enough, even if people live on both sides... How about a torus composed of subrings that rotate about their centers, producing day and night by rotating into and out of the light side of the main ring?

Timstone · #2 December 9th, 2004, 04:33 PM

Quote:

Ed Kolis said:
Hmm... let me guess... no, it can't be just a flat ring along the ecliptic like Saturn's rings so the world is in perpetual twilight, that's not innovative enough, even if people live on both sides... How about a torus composed of subrings that rotate about their centers, producing day and night by rotating into and out of the light side of the main ring?

Didn't I just say that?

Suicide Junkie · #3 December 9th, 2004, 04:34 PM

Why not simply live on the inner surface while you're awake, and head over to the outer surface to sleep?

Your day/night cycle is then totally up to you.

Timstone · #4 December 9th, 2004, 04:40 PM

Hahaha... now that's a great idea. There should be a transportation network soo big it could handle about 500 million people at once. Now that's a truelly mammoth undertaking. How to build such a monstrosity, how to maintain it, how to pay for it's construction?!

Raging Deadstar · #5 December 9th, 2004, 05:28 PM

Quote:

Timstone said:
Hahaha... now that's a great idea. There should be a transportation network soo big it could handle about 500 million people at once. Now that's a truelly mammoth undertaking. How to build such a monstrosity, how to maintain it, how to pay for it's construction?!

Pah, You haven't seen my Ministry of Transportation duties in Se4 By Committee. Sometimes Shipping several billion citizens around every turn.

Kana · #6 December 9th, 2004, 05:35 PM

Maybe someone can post a Sticky message with the 'exact time/date' of the chat, and all particulars like where and how and such....

Kana

Suicide Junkie · #7 December 12th, 2004, 01:45 AM

Quote:

Timstone said:
Hahaha... now that's a great idea. There should be a transportation network soo big it could handle about 500 million people at once. Now that's a truelly mammoth undertaking. How to build such a monstrosity, how to maintain it, how to pay for it's construction?!

Quite simply, make it distributed.

Make the ring a bunch of stories thick. Throw in a bunch of elevators, skyscraper-style in a pattern across the landscape.
Open air up top. Shops and stuff one floor down. Sleeping quarters below that. Services and cargo in the lower-middle. Armor on the very bottom.

Timstone · #8 December 12th, 2004, 07:22 AM

Quote:

Suicide Junkie said:

Quote:

Timstone said:
Hahaha... now that's a great idea. There should be a transportation network soo big it could handle about 500 million people at once. Now that's a truelly mammoth undertaking. How to build such a monstrosity, how to maintain it, how to pay for it's construction?!

Quite simply, make it distributed.

Make the ring a bunch of stories thick. Throw in a bunch of elevators, skyscraper-style in a pattern across the landscape.
Open air up top. Shops and stuff one floor down. Sleeping quarters below that. Services and cargo in the lower-middle. Armor on the very bottom.

Like I said, how the hell are you going to build such a thing?! It's huge!

Aiken · #9 December 12th, 2004, 07:32 AM

Just build a small (R ~ 2Rsun) circumsolar inner ring, with a transparent "hemiring".

Randallw · #10 December 12th, 2004, 07:51 AM

If you are talking about orbital rings (instead of ringworlds around suns) then anyone who has read Walter Jon Williams "Dread Empires Fall" series knows what can happen to them in a war. I'd post a description but can't figure out how to cover a spoiler.