Hop41 on DeviantArthttps://www.deviantart.com/hop41/art/Sol-Comics-Page-8-193650847Hop41

Deviation Actions

Hop41's avatar

Sol Comics Page 8

By
Published:
574 Views

Description

Back to page 7: [link]
Image size
1934x2899px 774.4 KB
© 2011 - 2024 Hop41
Comments5
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
SMPritchard's avatar
I used to have serious issues with windows on large space habitats too. But after doing some more research, I discovered two facts that made me reconsider; firstly, while most depictions of O'Neill cylinders and Stanford tori seem to show huge expanses of glass, these windows are not meant to be single monolithic sheets. They are composed of small panes, each about a meter square, set inside an aluminum frame. This frame bears the majority of the load from the pseudo-gravity and air pressure. This also ensures that an impact will not compromise the entire habitat, as a single micrometeorite could only damage a single pane, which could be replaced at the leisure of the repair crew with little to negligible loss of habitat pressure. You don't typically see the frame in the original paintings because it was assumed that at the distance a typical viewer would be from the windows, the frame itself would barely be visible. Secondly, on the point of radiation shielding (which was my main problem with windows), there is actually a rather elegant design which provides both adequate shielding as well as admitting natural sunlight. Imagine a series of mirrored chevron-shaped troughs, set into the windows almost like the slats of Venetian blinds. These chevron shields would be set at such an angle that sunlight would be reflected into the habitat interior via reflections between mirror shields in a manner similar to the optics of a periscope. The mass of the shields, being composed either of solid aluminum or perhaps a metallic frame filled with slag, provides shielding against GCRs and solar particles.