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Online Space Colony Virtual Model
Artist's concept of a Space Colony, circa 1976
Image Courtesy of NASA Ames Research Center
( The artwork is now in NASA archives )
We're going to build a "bicycle wheel" colony, such as is shown above and was discussed in the original version of O'Neill's The High Frontier, as a framework for a city in space. The internal environment will be much like living in a (shopping) mall that's three miles long and a hundred yards wide - and will require a lot less air to fill than a Bernall Sphere with the equivalent "gravity" environment would need. This design will also have considerably less usable area, and therefore a significantly smaller population capacity than other designs have, but our analysis indicates it's a more realistic initial goal.
We enthusiastically welcome comments on our analysis and efforts. A discussion group/forum and a mailing list will be established shortly, so that the discussion can be a public one.
The VRML framework for the online virtual colony model is presently under construction. Please check back here from time to time to see how it's progressing.
We are currently looking for volunteers to help with construction of our VRML models. Please see the posted job description in the Jobs at L5 Development section of this Web site for more information.
If you are interested in building a virtual store, home, or other piece of the colony, please contact us to discuss how to integrate your model with ours.
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