bilby
Fair dinkum thinkum
- Joined
- Mar 6, 2007
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So, I am reading my usual shit sci-fi, and one of the protagonists is on a rotating space station. You know, the 2001 type that generates gravity in a wheel-shaped facility by spinning.
Terrorists are threatening the facility. They plan to destroy the integrity of the hub, and kill everyone - because the air will all rapidly be drawn into the vacuum of space.
They're not able to get to the rim; so any damage they do is limited to the hub - but they have managed to disable any airtight seals and doors in the spokes.
Our hero speculates that the spin gravity might prevent the loss of all of the atmosphere, if the terrorists do explode their bomb, and depressurise the hub.
So my questions are:
1) Just how big (or how rapidly rotating) would such a rotating space station need to be, to retain sufficient atmosphere to keep its inhabitants alive, despite the station being opened to space at the hub? (And is this possible for a small [say, less than 10km diameter wheel] with reasonable maximum gravity at the rim - say 0.8 to 1.2g).
2) If the station were big (or fast) enough, wouldn't that imply that workers at the hub of such a station would be working in a vacuum, or at least at dangerously low pressures requiring protective suits, in normal circumstances (eg not a terrorist attack), or the inhabitants of the rim would be living at very high pressures, requiring low nitrogen 'air', like that used by divers, unless the spokes had airlocks or other seals to prevent the hub atmosphere from draining into tne rim?
Terrorists are threatening the facility. They plan to destroy the integrity of the hub, and kill everyone - because the air will all rapidly be drawn into the vacuum of space.
They're not able to get to the rim; so any damage they do is limited to the hub - but they have managed to disable any airtight seals and doors in the spokes.
Our hero speculates that the spin gravity might prevent the loss of all of the atmosphere, if the terrorists do explode their bomb, and depressurise the hub.
So my questions are:
1) Just how big (or how rapidly rotating) would such a rotating space station need to be, to retain sufficient atmosphere to keep its inhabitants alive, despite the station being opened to space at the hub? (And is this possible for a small [say, less than 10km diameter wheel] with reasonable maximum gravity at the rim - say 0.8 to 1.2g).
2) If the station were big (or fast) enough, wouldn't that imply that workers at the hub of such a station would be working in a vacuum, or at least at dangerously low pressures requiring protective suits, in normal circumstances (eg not a terrorist attack), or the inhabitants of the rim would be living at very high pressures, requiring low nitrogen 'air', like that used by divers, unless the spokes had airlocks or other seals to prevent the hub atmosphere from draining into tne rim?