O'Neill cylinders and travel outside the asteroid belt

This artist’s conception from the 1970s shows the interior of an O’Neill cylinder. (Credit: NASA) 

The O'Neill cylinder is theoretical construction of the space station or spacecraft which involves an environment that looks like Earth. There are plantations, houses, and other things that are on Earth. But everything has been made in the rotating cylinder. The centripetal force is making the artificial gravitation inside the cylinder. And that allows the crew to live as they would live on Earth. So that's why the O'Neill cylinder is called the "artificial Earth". 

The creator of that idea Gerard O'Neill introduced that there is a small city in the cylinder. The idea is that the O'Neill cylinder would work as the platform for benefiting the resources of the entire solar system. And maybe that kind of system would make humans travel to another solar system. The question is how that kind of system would get its electric supply? The answer would be the nuclear reactor or fusion power. The problem is that the normal fission reactor would need new fuel after every five years. 

Fusion energy is complicated to produce. But there is always possible to use the generator for making electricity for the artificial world. In that system, there is spacecraft that is connected to the generator. Then the craft orbit around that point. That thing makes the generator rotate and it would make the electricity to the entire space station. Or the cores of the cylinder are turned to the induction generator. 

In the middle of the rotating cylinder would put the rotor. And to the core is installed the stator. That turns the rotating cylinder itself into the generator. The O'Neill cylinder would be an enormous thing. That means the forces that are affecting this structure are enormous. So there is the possibility that the centripetal forces are ripping that megastructure in pieces. 

Maybe that kind of space station is traveling in the solar system. And share goods and people to colonies that will establish to other planets and their moons. There is the possibility that the Mars craft would install rotating structures that are making it possible to grow vegetables in the space. 

When we are thinking about the possibility to create artificial gravitation by using rotating structures. That would not mean that the entire craft must rotate if somewhere is growing vegetables. The parts that are rotating can also connect to other parts of the craft by using bearings. That means that only those parts that are needed for plantations are rotating. Which means the rotating masses are lower. 

()https://space.nss.org/o-neill-cylinder-space-settlement/

Image():https://www.geekwire.com/2016/jeff-bezos-space-colonies-oneill/

()https://visionsoftheaiandfuture.blogspot.com/

What if we would want to establish the base on the surface of Mars or orbiting trajectory?

What if we would want to establish the base on the surface of Mars or orbiting trajectory?

Planet Mars seems an interesting place for the base, but the thing is that there are lots of problems with the long-term staying on that planet, and one of them is a weak gravity. As well as the strange space station concept, what is called "Solar Warden" has problems with the artificial gravity, because if we would think that those crews should someday return to Earth, the weak gravity in those stations would make the muscles of the crew members very weak.

So if the persons would want to live a long time in the space they would need so-called sumo-suits for keeping their muscles strong, and they should eat very much calcium for keeping their bones strong. This is the main problem in every simulation of the space station on another planet. And that kind of station is expensive operations. They should benefit the investors somehow, and that's why the artificial worlds, what was planned by Dr. Gerald O'Neill (1927-1991) in the 1970s are also a sophisticated solution for supporting the space industry.

But if the bones and muscles get weak, that thing means that the staff must be in that space station only short-term periods, but the problem is that there must need lots of people in those space stations. And traveling between Earth and those gigantic spacecraft would be expensive. So another solution would be that the crew just leaves to those space stations the rest of their life, and the third is creating artificial gravity what is strong enough that it allows a return to Earth.

Because of the gravity is too weak, the returning causes pain to those people. That's why this kind of thing must consider in the long-term space explorations. If we are planning the space station, what would make the artificial gravity by using the rotation movement, that thing would seem very effective and also very comfortable for making the artificial gravity field.

The thing, that would cause problems is that the rotation movement of the space station should be very high, because of the centrifugal force must be extremely high, that it can create artificial gravity. And in this situation, the rotation speed would rip the station in pieces, which might be one of the biggest hazards in the mission.

But there are some calculations, that the cylinder-shaped space station would reach the speed, what is high enough for causing a similar gravity with Earth, and that thing could be one of the most enormous machines, what human has ever created. If we are thinking that kind of artificial world, what could seem like some kind of city inside it, that thing could revolutionize the production in the space or zero atmospheric and zero-gravity space.

The zero-gravity factory would set in the middle of the cylinder, where are the zero-gravity conditions. And then the air inside the factory would be pumped out. That would create a vacuum inside it, and it can offer stable and balanced space for creating things, where is needed extremely high accuracy. This kind of artificial world can someday revolutionize the production of the materials and nanomachines. But creating this kind of station would be the long term process.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerard_K._O%27Neill

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/crux/2014/09/08/where-build-off-world-colonies/?utm_source=dscfb&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=dscfb#.XaBKXf2U-dM

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/today-in-history/gerard-oneills-utopian-space-colony-fantasy-was-a-view-too-far-for-nonbelievers/news-story/de14846cbe46fb4da115a24ed55c3aa0