Recent content by Al_

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...

I meant, as the article says, similar to water worlds. Although of course Earth is not a water world, and Venus has a similar density to Earth. I wonder if carbon could play a big part in Venus composition.

plate tectonics, and/or convection currents, are not responsible for Earth's magnetic field

Yes, the rocky planets are assumed to have iron-nickel cores - but then why does Venus not have a significant magnetic field? The article says that soot worlds would have a similar density, but a weaker magnetic field The article says that there would be a zone closer to the star than the water...

I read the phys.org article - https://phys.org/news/2025-09-soot-planets-common-worlds.html and wondered if Venus could be a soot world as it describes. It has no magnetic field, is very dry, an has a lot of carbon in its atmosphere

Yes, Xenon has been used medically for surgery. I don't know if Moon rocks emit Xenon particularly , but I think its likely they emit some gases. Based on Earth rocks, and science done about other planets.

I did some rough calculations based on the Barometric Formula (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barometric_formula) to find out how deep a chasm would need to be, on the Moon, to have a Earth-like atmosphere at the bottom. I used 0.3 nPa and 1/6 Earth gravity, and assumed a constant temperature all...

that's quite a tense atmosphere!