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Modular centrifugal station construction (p2 of ?): N-Modules by Accelerando

Modular centrifugal station construction (p2 of ?): N-Modules

Accelerando

Next in the series, plus a touched up version of the first diagram. This new installment details the interior of a neighborhood module, or N-Module.

The N-Module depicted here is particularly small, about the size of a modest apartment complex. However, Modules need not be this small. I think that a range of standard sizes for Modules would be useful: smaller “pioneer” units would be used to build a modest rotating space station, and then when the station has built up sufficient resources, it can invest in larger N-Modules. These units would range in size from homely (depicted here) to perhaps the size of a convention center/skyscraper, containing enough room to house hundreds to thousands of people on its own. This maximum size is meant to keep Modules manufacturable by human-scale production facilities (that is, they’re not megaprojects in themselves), and it keeps their flat floors from incurring too steep a gravity gradient.

Since they must serve as the “terrain” for all sorts of homes and industries, N-Modules are meant to be configurable for any purpose. To this end, they are gridded steel frameworks with spaces and hardpoints for attaching floors and walls/equipment respectively.

Each floor and wall segment consists of two parallel panels; the space between these panels may be filled with insulation, soundproofing, wiring, and pipes as one would expect. Floor panels may be manufactured with numerous slots for “sub-panels” to access the utilities within: electrical outlet strips, pipe interfaces, network cables, and so on. Panels may be screwed in for easier maintenance access later, or they may be fixed to a surface by more permanent means for security; screws are depicted here. Additionally, hardpoints for attaching appliances and furniture via screws/bolts may be included.

An example floor panel layout is detailed above, with pull-out handles for ease of removal.

As mentioned before, N-Modules have flat floors; this allows the floor panels to be manufactured to standard, equal dimensions. Because of the uneven artificial gravity experienced across a flat floor under centrifugal force (even when the center of the floor is rotated to point directly down, like Modules are), the sides of the module will behave like (very slight) inclines. This small discrepancy might actually be beneficial: “gravity gutters” may be placed along and/or parallel to the sides of a Module, so as to catch any spilt fluids and debris.

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    N-Module could have only two floors (top and bottom) and have it's own local rotation control. So you can have a fixed N-Module, its' gravity referenced to AOMS, or a self-rotating N-Module, which regulates it's own gravity by adjusting it's spin speed. Different inhabitants can adjust centrifugal force to their own likes.

    Hell, you can even have high-RPM N-Modules, which mix liquids or solids during the way. Or purify uranium.

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      They don't rotate on their own; they can be turned during installation to face toward local "down".

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    I am intrigued and confused on so many levels.

    I kind of crave more of these

    • Link

      Thanks! Sorry the writing is kind of disjointed. I'm still roughing out all of the ideas, although I know fairly well what it's supposed to be.

      The module system is basically a way to fill the "vertical" space inside a cylinder-space station rotating for gravity, by dividing up the volume into honeycombs of equal area. Since centrifugal gravity would be uneven on a polygon-shaped space station, though, the modules are rotatable to compensate for different local gravity directions. I guess I should go over these some more before I put up the next one, haha