Dec 21, 16 / Cap 20, 00 00:47 UTC

Moving around the Nation.  

Hi there! I was thinking about this for a long time: how will everyone move around in Asgardia? Let's say I have some free time and I want to go to the other side of the Nation, how should people be able to accomplish such thing? I was thinking to something similar to a subway, but I'm not really sure... any suggestions?

Dec 21, 16 / Cap 20, 00 01:54 UTC

Depending on the size of the finished nation, a subway system would be perfect for transport. More specifically Maglev Trains as transport.

Dec 21, 16 / Cap 20, 00 16:56 UTC

Elon Musk's magic hyper tube? Which in space would be a real life turbo-lift.

Granted. It's still yet to be proven, but some food for thought nonetheless.

Dec 21, 16 / Cap 20, 00 18:23 UTC

I assume with nation you think of the station Asgardia wants to build over time. In space habitates would be connected to other modules in all dimensions so you are not bound to the mostly two dimensional transport we use today in big cities. Without artificial gravity, for every destination not reachable in a few minutes by "foot" it is probably best to install something like a pneumatic tube system outside the station. If there is gravity generated by rotation most likely the station will be cylindrical so the space is somewhat two dimensional again. While transporting something or someone along the rotation axis would be no problem, accelerating something around the rotation axis will result in a increase in gravity and is therefore not suitable for transporting sensitive stuff. As the size of the station increases using elevators from the rotation axis to the outer parts and a pneumatic tube system inside the axis becomes more and more efficient.

Dec 21, 16 / Cap 20, 00 18:57 UTC

I totally agree with Kajiim, hyper tuve like futurama will be awesome, also, it can be three dimensional transportation, perfect for space.

Dec 21, 16 / Cap 20, 00 19:01 UTC

Some sort of railed or tubed transport system - like a subway or Musk's Hyperloop - would make sense if it was all in the same geogrpahical location or had some form of physical link between locations.

I phear you're thinking too small. Space is big. Disaster aside, there's multiple good reasons to not concentrate the entire nation to one tiny physical spot. You'd likely want to have valid station/outpost designs before you consider how to integrate transport solutions. Or more sensibly, the transport solution be an integral part of the design.

"Hyperloop" wouldn't be anything like "turbolift" - Hyperloop would be closer in analogy to trains. Turbolift, lacking a non-fiction simile, would be akin to Wonka's glass elevator briefly touched upon in "Charlie and the chocolate factory", and more heavily in the sequal book. It doesn't just move up/down, but laterally also.

As a pure hypothetical construct, consider a collection - for sake of example, six - orbital stations, with an approximate habitation capacity of 200,000 ⃗ 250,000 people a peice(before upgrades). These are unlikely to be small structures, and transportation inside almost essential. Design dependant, it could mostly have needs met by a combination of elevators, escalators, moving walkways, and some sort of train type affair.

Transportation between these could be acheived electronically and cheaply by use of centrafugal launchers. They can spin a payload up and release it at the "right" part of it's arc in order to add/reduce relative velocity and thusly either catch up with the station in "front" or allow the one "behind" to catch it up. Six evenly spaced at an orbital distance of about 150,000 meters should allow for minimal energy to be added/removed from velocity and still result in reasonably short travel times, station ⃗station in about 35-45mins or so. It could be done faster if using propulsion to slow down/speed up closer to destination, or delivering cargo that's less sensitive to sudden changes in G.

Such launchers could cheaply provide for distance transport of people and cargo alike. With a network of them cunningly placed, it should be possible to put anything, anywhere, in a semi-reasonable amount of time. The "pods" it throws could in theory could be highly modular, and thusly fit for mulitple purposes. With sufficient heat sheilding and decent arrest technology(ie: parachute) it's feasibly possible to throw people and cargo to any spot on the planets surface, too.

Q-thrusters would also protentially be a viable propulsion source for various things, including personell and cargo - but comes with a higher energy cost. Possibly more sensible to use on asteroid tugs and other situations where the low, but constant, specific impulse will add up over time.

Dec 22, 16 / Cap 21, 00 01:49 UTC

I'm glad the bait worked.

Jan 2, 17 / Aqu 02, 01 17:27 UTC

What if the station is smaller than we may think? If it is, then an efficient way for people to move around could be walking. Walking could save on energy conservation in Asgardia. If it is large enough to support a system that requires transport like that then I would go along with Musk's Hyperloop.

Jan 2, 17 / Aqu 02, 01 18:23 UTC

I would say Hyperloop is possibly our best bet. Final testing of pod designs are coming up later on this month Jan 2017. http://www.spacex.com/hyperloop

In Dubai, I do know they have already started the planned construction process of their hyperloop tubes. http://www.buildearthlive.com/hyperloop