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From: "Architexturez." <admin-in@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
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Date: Tue, 23 Nov 2004 01:09:15 +0530
Home, Space Home
On the ground, the International Space Station would be an odd looking
building -- but space is an odd place to live!
NASA
Marshall Space Flight Center
March 14, 2001 -- Homes on Earth provide shelter from the wind and rain.
But a home in Earth orbit must shield its occupants from the solar wind,
and it must withstand a steady rain of dust-sized meteoroids, many
moving faster than a speeding bullet!
A terrestrial house has insulation to keep the air inside cool or warm,
but a space home must be tightly sealed just to keep the air inside.
The structure of earthbound buildings must support a constant
gravitational pull of 1-g. In contrast, an orbiting structure's design
should make sense in microgravity, and at the same time be able to
withstand the tremendous 3-g acceleration of a rocket blasting into space.
For these and other reasons, building a structure for living in space
poses a different set of design challenges than building homes on the
ground.
and cont'd...
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast14mar_1.htm