Recent content by Al_

Not my decision, but at the moment, with the current state of technology, they do fade.

As you say, you would need a lot of batteries. Flywheels brought from Earth would by a similar mass, but they would last far longer. And sure, they can easily be modular.

True. My main argument is that batteries fade over time, but a flywheel won't.

Indeed. Perhaps I shouldn't have added that to the proposal, it just complicates things. I do think it is possible that basalt fiber might eventually become a product available in quantity on the Moon. But for the first flywheels, the components would all come from Earth.

Yes, and while real examples of both vary, a flywheel without the mass of a vacuum container is broadly similar to battery. But with the best materials, up to 1000Wh/Kg is claimed as possible for a flywheel. Batteries can't match that with a reasonable lifespan.

For controlling robots on the Moon, for mining or construction. We have robots that can copy human movements from camera vision. Factory robots can perform simple tasks after being shown what to do. But first-person controlled robots don't work very well with a one-second delay each way. I...

If making basalt fiber on the moon presents problems, then I propose making the flywheel on Earth. For a energy storage solution, I am not proposing shielding the flywheel from cosmic rays or micrometeorites. It would be some distance from a habitat, with different shielding. Thermal cycling...

Batteries bad The article linked above says batteries are problematic in space. I propose a flywheel, which is suited to the Lunar environment. 1) It is in vacuum already. 2) Magnetic suspension is less demanding in 1/6 gravity. 3) Superconductors need very low temperatures which are easily...

I think you may be referring to the nausea that is caused by turning your head in a small radius rotating environment. But these asteroids are too slowly rotating to cause this as far as we know, although experimental evidence is a bit scarce to say the least. We could ask Elon or Jeff if they...

"ultimate deep freeze at about -100°C." yes but insulation is much easier in vacuum, and so is arranging to expose it to sunlight.

Why hollow out - the reason is delta-V. Why not find mass that is already moving where you want it to. And why rotate them? - find ones that are already rotating - momentum again. Who says they travelled interstellar distances - at least in recent times - its all just guessing. Maybe they...

That sounds comfortable. If I were living that far from home, I'd want comfort. And at least 6 meters of radiation shielding.

Yeah, but they just talk about unicorns. Oops, I didn't mean to end the thread. I like to talk about things that actually could be true. And if anyone knows of any hard evidence - either way.

One of them is a near-Earth object. The rest are in the asteroid belt. The asteroid belt could be a source of zero-g materials to an advanced civilization. But I take your point - extraordinary claims. If the differentiated core of a minor planet was shattered in a collision, the fragments...

TL;DR: Fast rotating asteroids could be rotating habitats Fast rotating asteroids The rotation is so fast that if there were internal spaces it would have an actual simulated gravitational force inside. This force would be much greater than the small, in fact tiny, gravity from the mass...