The Hub
Mission Statement
Current Ideas
Design Notes
Research Notes
The Creation of Life
This section covers what we envision the habitat to look like. It refrains from covering most of the little details; instead it tries to look at the broad picture.The conception of the torus
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| An early design of the torus. |
For instance, there is the torus design shape. Earlier on in the project, we used spheres to make up the various sections of the habitat. However, our original estimate of four 5-6m diameter spheres blossomed into at least six 6m diameter spheres as the other teams produced figures for the occupancy of the station. As we looked further into the design of the connecting doors between the spheres, we decided upon a circular arrangement of the spheres so as to minimize connections. However, the doors themselves were becoming monstrosities as they were the weakest points in the entire structure. The reinforcements required to take pressure off the doors we saw were changing the circular arrangement of the spheres into a torus. It then occurred to us what was causing the only other object frequently used at that depth (the cylinder) to fail: the end caps. As flat surfaces are severely prone to buckling at that depth, the end caps, if not buttressed, would cave in and the cylinder would collapse. However, if the cylinder was wrapped around into the shape of a torus, then there would be no endcaps and hence no weak points.