This was a surprisingly ignorant comment by T. K. Van Allen, given that O’Neill was a physicist and included all his calculations. I suspect Van Allen never actually read the ‘Steel structure’ math in O’Neill’s essay The Colonization of Space. The rest of Van Allen’s bullet points also seem ignorant of O’Neill’s calculations further down in the essay. I don’t disagree with the bottomline that the cost is prohibitive, I just wished Van Allen engaged with O’Neill’s math.
Was there anything in particular that you specifically disagree with Van Allen on, either in my summary or the first (free) chapter of his book?
I shared the link that you sent me with him on Discord, and he told me that he’s seen it before.
He also said that the link that you sent still doesn’t specify the structure in enough detail, as far as he can see, and that it doesn’t really matter.
Like, I noticed that O’Neill proposed: 1. retrieving the cylinder materials from the Moon and 2. setting up either a Rotary Pellet Launcher or a Transport Linear Accelerator for retrieving materials from the Moon to make the construction cheaper.
I agree that he didn’t address this possibility in the book, but I don’t fully understand your criticism regarding the steel structure math.
You might be more knowledgeable on this topic than I am, so I’m also wondering if you know of any sources where O’Neill gave a more specific description of what he was thinking about?
For example, I’m trying to figure out what O’Neill proposed for the thickness of the original cylinder hull.
I can’t find it on Wikipedia or in the link that you sent me, and I think this is a huge deal because the exact dimension of the hull thickness can greatly change the amount of materials that are required for building the cylinder.
The square/cube isn’t really relevant to the O’Neill cylinder itself, but it is relevant when considering what kinds of space infrastructure could be created to launch the cylinder or its components into space.
I agree with the reasoning that he stated in the book regarding this topic.
I think he’s right about the maximum length of steel cables at Earth surface gravity.
Granted, space would have much weaker gravity, so assembling an O’Neil cylinder in space and having it never land on any planets could make this a non-issue.
Also, the bullet points are my attempt to summarize what he wrote.
They’re not what he actually wrote.
But the first chapter of Van Allen’s book is free to read on Amazon as a sample if you’d like, and it includes everything that I was trying to summarize.
This was a surprisingly ignorant comment by T. K. Van Allen, given that O’Neill was a physicist and included all his calculations. I suspect Van Allen never actually read the ‘Steel structure’ math in O’Neill’s essay The Colonization of Space. The rest of Van Allen’s bullet points also seem ignorant of O’Neill’s calculations further down in the essay. I don’t disagree with the bottomline that the cost is prohibitive, I just wished Van Allen engaged with O’Neill’s math.
Was there anything in particular that you specifically disagree with Van Allen on, either in my summary or the first (free) chapter of his book? I shared the link that you sent me with him on Discord, and he told me that he’s seen it before. He also said that the link that you sent still doesn’t specify the structure in enough detail, as far as he can see, and that it doesn’t really matter.
Like, I noticed that O’Neill proposed: 1. retrieving the cylinder materials from the Moon and 2. setting up either a Rotary Pellet Launcher or a Transport Linear Accelerator for retrieving materials from the Moon to make the construction cheaper. I agree that he didn’t address this possibility in the book, but I don’t fully understand your criticism regarding the steel structure math.
You might be more knowledgeable on this topic than I am, so I’m also wondering if you know of any sources where O’Neill gave a more specific description of what he was thinking about? For example, I’m trying to figure out what O’Neill proposed for the thickness of the original cylinder hull. I can’t find it on Wikipedia or in the link that you sent me, and I think this is a huge deal because the exact dimension of the hull thickness can greatly change the amount of materials that are required for building the cylinder.
The square/cube isn’t really relevant to the O’Neill cylinder itself, but it is relevant when considering what kinds of space infrastructure could be created to launch the cylinder or its components into space. I agree with the reasoning that he stated in the book regarding this topic.
I think he’s right about the maximum length of steel cables at Earth surface gravity. Granted, space would have much weaker gravity, so assembling an O’Neil cylinder in space and having it never land on any planets could make this a non-issue.
Also, the bullet points are my attempt to summarize what he wrote. They’re not what he actually wrote. But the first chapter of Van Allen’s book is free to read on Amazon as a sample if you’d like, and it includes everything that I was trying to summarize.
Anyway, thank you for sharing the link.