3 ms·

How about a giant donut balloon that inflates once in space? NASA could fill it with balls and charge admission while waiting for the expedition's supplies to r

• gliese1337 14y ago
  An inflatable torus might be a good way to create a friendly working environment for further construction, but further construction will be required. There're still the issue of docking to worry about, and you get new problems when you allow inhabitants to move around an arc; some active system is required to ensure that, as people and equipment move about, other stuff gets adjusted to ensure that the center of rotation always remains at the center of the torus. Otherwise, it will start to wobble, resulting in different gravity levels around the torus and inducing stretching force along some axis. If the balance is successfully restored (and the station does not tear itself apart) but not quickly enough, then you have vibration damping issues to worry about. These problems become less severe as you make the structure large and larger (and thus the mass of the inhabitants less significant), but larger structures are of course more difficult and more expensive to construct.