To Terraform or not to Terraform?

[Trolldor]

No, my tongue is quite whole. Your mother can confirm.

[mistermack]

No, my tongue is quite whole. Your mother can confirm.

I was right about you then. I just hope you tidied her grave up when you finished.

[ScholasticSpastic]

Erm.... Last I checked the pressure gauge, I've got 126 atm (1900psi) of pressure in my helium canister next door in the lab.

Errrm..... That's great. How many people does it hold, and what would it cost to send it to Mars?

When it was constructed in 1969, the Space Power Facility (SPF) was the world's largest vacuum chamber. It stands more than 122 feet high, 100 feet in diameter and provides a vacuum environment for the study of space propulsion. Originally commissioned for nuclear-electric propulsion studies, the SPF has been re-commissioned for current and future use in the ongoing research and development of space propulsion systems. The SPF is located at Plum Brook Station, part of the John H. Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field, Cleveland, Ohio.

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegal ... e_648.html

Why inflatable space habitats?

Gold said the technology offers several advantages. For one, an expandable structure can be tightly packed inside a variety of rocket nose farings, at econo-class prices. Additional, once in orbit, they offer increased pressurized volume for crew and experiments. Lastly, they provide a lot of instant room at low-cost.

http://www.space.com/news/businessmonday_040524.html

Can a balloon securely hold an atmosphere of pressure under harsh conditions? The answer is yes- if you make it from the right materials. How many people does it hold? Depends on how large you make the balloon. What about protection from impacts/punctures? Burying a habitat balloon will both provide protection from impacts and help offset stresses due to differential pressures across the membrane.

Best of all, you don't have to fuck around with mining, melting, and protecting a large volume of water.

[mistermack]

Scholastic, surely you know the difference between a vacuum chamber and a pressure chamber?
One very important difference is that many cheap materials like concrete etc. are extremely strong in compression, but weak and brittle under tension.
A vacuum chamber can be made from low grade materials, as the forces are compressing it. This means you can make it huge, with little risk of failure.
That doesn't apply to a pressure chamber. You need very strong tensile strength, and failure is progressive.
You would need something like a huge car tyre.
They hold a lot more than one atmosphere, so that sort of structure is a candidate for the "balloon" that you mentioned.
I'm not a mathemetician, but I suspect that as the tyre gets bigger, the forces get MUCH bigger, due to the increasing internal surface area.
By the time you get to room-size, I have doubts about the practicality, but I would be open to looking at the figures.
I think you would be looking at a very heavy, steel re-inforced balloon, like a giant tractor tyre.
Whether it's practical or even possible to scale that up in size, I don't know.
But I'm willing to bet it would have to be very heavy.
And wouldn't rubber be brittle in the extreme cold?

[Gawdzilla Sama]

mistermack, go find the person who taught you engineering and tell me where they are. They need to die before they do this to anyone else.

[mistermack]

mistermack, go find the person who taught you engineering and tell me where they are. They need to die before they do this to anyone else.

You're going to explain why. I know you are. Even you wouldn't be that pathetic, as to keep those gems to yourself?
I can hardly wait.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

mistermack, go find the person who taught you engineering and tell me where they are. They need to die before they do this to anyone else.

You're going to explain why. I know you are. Even you wouldn't be that pathetic, as to keep those gems to yourself?
I can hardly wait.

You haven't noted that I'm talking about you and not to you yet?

[mistermack]

mistermack, go find the person who taught you engineering and tell me where they are. They need to die before they do this to anyone else.

You're going to explain why. I know you are. Even you wouldn't be that pathetic, as to keep those gems to yourself?
I can hardly wait.

You haven't noted that I'm talking about you and not to you yet?

No I haven't. The words coming out of your arse are a bit muffled.

[Clinton Huxley]

Well, this is productive.....