Earth-Moon Main Base

Even before the main syzygy base was connected to near-Earth space through the tether system, construction of this main base had begun on the asteroid psyche manufacturing site.

The segments of the main base look like dumbbells with two modules at the ends, which could be habitation or manufacturing structures. The modules have a level of artificial gravity determined by the length of the momentum extending out from the axis of rotation. Different radial accelerations can be used in different modules, as long as the center of rotation is in the correct location. Balancing the modules around the axis of rotation went a little bit like balancing a tire except on a much bigger scale.

The unit cell of the Earth Moonbase is the dumbbell-shaped neighborhood module containing two modules linked by an elevator shaft through a hub at the center of the neighborhood. The hub contains a perpendicular axial pair of tunnels to link the many neighborhoods together into a vast rotating city.

Different neighborhoods can have different levels of artificial gravity. Disabled people can live in low gravity neighborhoods. Colonists destined for Mars lived in modules with Mars gravity while preparing to go.

As with any city, it is easier for people to get around their neighborhood, and then it is divided into another neighborhood. Within a particular sub-module, you would be able to walk to wherever you were going. To get to the sub-module on the other end of the neighborhood, you could take elevators to the other side. However, to go to a different neighborhood you would have to stop in the middle of the neighborhood where the gravity is near zero and take the axial train to the central hub of a different neighborhood.

If the mass of these two sub-modules of a neighborhood is equal, both modules would have the same level of artificial gravity. However, in some cases one sub-module will be more massive than the other one and in this case will be closer to the axis of rotation. In these cases, the gravity could vary greatly between these two rotating sub-modules.

Even before the first neighborhood of this earth-moon main base station was built, the entire plan for this station, designed to accommodate billions of people comfortably, was complete. Thank God for artificial intelligence!

City planning in space is far more flexible than city planning on Earth. In space, one is not constrained by geography.

The optimum shape of a smallish space station that also shields the occupants from gamma radiation and provides artificial gravity is definitely in the form of a dumbbell that is rotating about its center of mass. The acceleration at the outer perimeter could be equal to normal Earth gravity, but it proved useful to apply different effects of gravity for different tasks. In addition to palpitations and directors for disabled people, there were also very low gravity zones for fabrication areas where heavy equipment, and workout gyms where you could select the gravity level of where you’re going to lift weights.

Habitation structures were mostly at one standard Earth gravity. The two levels are linked by a long corridor which also comprises the elevator shaft between them. One could have additional features hanging off this corridor which would have lower effective artificial gravity. In the final form of the city, reduced gravity living zones were established for elderly people.

The city was designed in the form of a helix comprising dumbbell-shaped rotating elements linked together around a central hub. Each rotating dumbbell is capable of independent existence, but by linking multiple dumbbells together, a city of practically unlimited size could grow organically.

There is no practical limit to how long a helix may be formed by stacking up such dumbbell-shaped rotating structures. The design was far more effective because of the helical train tracks that connected all the modules on one side of the axis. This naturally led to a division of the city between the Left Bank and the Right Bank.

A small part of the mass of 16 Psyche could in fact be converted to a city housing many billions of people with room to spare.

This dumbbell-shaped neighborhood structure is basically the unit cell of a space station/city that can have unlimited size.

It makes the most sense that such a city should be made out of materials readily available in the asteroid belt. The maximum size of such a city is limited only by the available iron-nickel alloy in the asteroid belt.

If only the iron-nickel alloy found in 16 Psyche is used, a helix of rotating habitation structures with a radius of 50 km, and with shielding equivalent to the Earth’s atmosphere at sea level all around the habitation structures, and with 50 square meters of living space per person could be constructed for billions of people.

For many years, Earth residents were convinced that they could only move off of the Earth onto another planet. When it became part of the mass consciousness that there was a practical alternative for cities in space, commercial enterprises delivered quite a large variety of cities, which by 2200 in the customary calendar had been created all around the solar system.

Some of these cities comprise just a single rotating set of habitation modules, and several huge cities which adopted a helical shape. By the year 2300, there were dozens of cities in the asteroid belt.

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