How big is a Stanford torus?

1.8 km
It consists of a torus, or doughnut-shaped ring, that is 1.8 km in diameter (for the proposed 10,000 person habitat described in the 1975 Summer Study) and rotates once per minute to provide between 0.9g and 1.0g of artificial gravity on the inside of the outer ring via centrifugal force.

What makes the Stanford Torus space colony design unique?

It consists of a torus or donut-shaped ring that is one mile in diameter, rotates once per minute to provide Earth-normal gravity on the inside of the outer ring, and which can house 10,000 people.

What is a torus in space?

In geometry, a torus (plural tori, colloquially donut) is a surface of revolution generated by revolving a circle in three-dimensional space about an axis that is coplanar with the circle.

How much would a Stanford Torus cost?

The cost of the Stanford Torus would come to some $900 billion. But we could minimize a large chunk of that cost by using reusable SpaceX rockets to send people to space. Eventually, we’d start building more habitats, and explore more of the Solar System.

Can spinning create artificial gravity?

Dave: In space, it is possible to create “artificial gravity” by spinning your spacecraft or space station. Technically, rotation produces the same effect as gravity because it produces a force (called the centrifugal force) just like gravity produces a force.

How much would it cost to build a Stanford torus?

How much would it cost to build an orbital ring?

If built by launching the necessary materials from Earth, the cost for the system estimated by Birch in 1980s money was around $31 billion (for a “bootstrap” system intended to expand to 1000 times its initial size over the following year, which would otherwise cost 31 trillion dollars) if launched using Shuttle- …

Can we build a Stanford torus?

To build a Stanford Torus, we’d need to mine the Moon a little. It would have to be close enough to the Moon so that we could easily transport the materials. It would also need to be far enough from the Earth that it wouldn’t fall into our planet’s orbit.