O'neil Cylinder!

[daniel l.]

I was just thinking about how cool it would be to have a massive O'neil cylinder that can carry 1000 kerbals in comfort!

POSSIBLE DIMENSIONS:

Radius: 40m

Length: 200m

Mass: 1000 tons

The mod would also include a set of HUGE parts (Ion engines, Xenon tanks, Fusion reactors, Command pods, Solar panels, LFO Engines & Fuel to launch the darn thing!)

I hope somebody see's this and makes us all a generation ship pack!

[Lhathron the Elf]

This is an.... interesting idea. I doubt anyone would seriously take this up, though. Not to mention the fact that both the VAB and the launchpad itself would not be able to handle something of that size.

[tater]

Needs to spin at 4.7 rpm for 1 g at that tiny size. Needs to be vastly larger.

- - - Updated - - -

This is an.... interesting idea. I doubt anyone would seriously take this up, though. Not to mention the fact that both the VAB and the launchpad itself would not be able to handle something of that size.

Nothing like this should EVER be launched into orbit, it should be BUILT in orbit.

[daniel l.]

Needs to spin at 4.7 rpm for 1 g at that tiny size. Needs to be vastly larger.

- - - Updated - - -

Nothing like this should EVER be launched into orbit, it should be BUILT in orbit.

I figured that it should be less than 1g, How about Duna gravity (0.3g)

[tater]

2.6 rpm, still pretty fast.

For habitats on limited duration flights, the goal could be a very low centripetal acceleration, but O'neil colonies for long-term habitation were meant to be higher. I don't recall, but O'Neil cylinders were on the order of over a km in radius, right?

Still very cool, but if you are going to make a single part that is a colony, I'd rather have to loft parts to make a workshop, parts landed on the Mun or Minmus to mine (and mass drivers), then have the structure build itself in orbit, whereupon we can fly new colonists to it ourselves.

[daniel l.]

2.6 rpm, still pretty fast.

For habitats on limited duration flights, the goal could be a very low centripetal acceleration, but O'neil colonies for long-term habitation were meant to be higher. I don't recall, but O'Neil cylinders were on the order of over a km in radius, right?

Still very cool, but if you are going to make a single part that is a colony, I'd rather have to loft parts to make a workshop, parts landed on the Mun or Minmus to mine (and mass drivers), then have the structure build itself in orbit, whereupon we can fly new colonists to it ourselves.

What radius and length would you suggest? As for constructing it, I too think that orbital construction is the best but i think that having massive engines would still be usefull for making the cylinder travel to other worlds, Or if you are a badass like jeb then launch it from kerbin!!

[tater]

I have no idea on the size for a mod… It seems like if it were properly "vernal" inside, and decorated with trees, etc, it would drag our machines to a screeching halt anyway. If it was not cool inside… it's sort of pointless. Maybe you'd view the inside not from the actual inside, but from a room near the rotational axis where the docking port is. Dunno what you'd do regarding the light from the sun coming in, though...

[vger]

This is an.... interesting idea. I doubt anyone would seriously take this up, though. Not to mention the fact that both the VAB and the launchpad itself would not be able to handle something of that size.

Yeha, I was just gonna say, "We're going to launch this pig HOW?"

[zekes]

This is an.... interesting idea. I doubt anyone would seriously take this up, though. Not to mention the fact that both the VAB and the launchpad itself would not be able to handle something of that size.

make it modular?

[Tex_NL]

40 * 200m is tiny!

Many modern container ships, cruise liners and aircraft carriers fall within the so called Panamax class, the maximum size ship that can travel the Panama canal: 106 ft (32.31 m) * 965 ft (294.13 m). What you're suggesting is roughly the same size. Even for KSP standards that isn't very big.

[tater]

Nothing that could possibly be launched from Kerbin is large enough to be a real orbital colony.

[RainDreamer]

Might want to check this out: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/84106-0-90-Stanford-Torus-0-6

A cylinder can be built from multiple rings, right? Maybe stack a bunch of those.

[tater]

Rings a km in cross-sectional radius?