Building a Sphere in Outer Space

Sounds like a fine start, but I'd check with Lord Vader first. He was there when it was built and might have some advice for you.

Build it like nature builds planets. Start the frame work in the center and work out!

From a construction standpoint its like building house. Start at the bottom and go up. Since there is no up or down in space there is only a center going out.

Years ago, on Walter Cronkite's "20th Century" science program (back when science was on major networks) I saw this done, on earth, to make a house. A balloon was inflated, then coated an expanding foam. There's a place near Waco, TX that does the same thing with balloons and concrete to build dome homes. And of course, Bigelo already has a couple of orbiting balloon structures.

In th 40s houses were buid by concrete projection on inflated half-spherical rubber baloons.

Despite its unusual shape, the Death Star was basically an interstellar ship, and it was built the same way you would build any other ship; by constructing the framework and bulkheads first, and then applying the external panels before finally completing the inside.

Lord Vader out.

Way too much time on your hands people..!! hehehehe

Yes, you could dig up this stuff on pluto ,then tow it past uranus

If the Death Star was a sphere, then why are the Borg ships cubes?

The Borg ship appears to be of modular construction. Much like the attempt at selling affordable apartments in the the 60's and 70's.

I suppose with a collective intelligence, you don't get much individuality and Feng shui is probably completely out of the question.

On a side note. How come on most all the Sci-Fi depict the earth ships as drab and uninspiring while the rest of the universe has really cool looking ships. ie. The Klingons and Romulans had the Bird of prey and the D7. And look how cool the Heart of Gold was on Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. The Agsgar's O'Neil was a really cool ship, but the Earth's Prometheus was a Box. I suppose we are portrayed more like the Borg.

It would seem to the best way to build is not much different in space than in gravity. The shell should be built as quickly as possible so the interior could be made somewhat environmentally friendly to protect the workers.

Productivity would seem to be increased if the workers did not have to fumble with the big gloves and worries over suit punctures.

Construction waste could be managed inside the structure. Building from the inside outside out could create a huge cleanup problem.

I am also just imagining the problems with Port-A-Pot placement and service. And what about the Roach Coach (lunch wagon)? How is he going sell those plastic wrapped spaghetti and meatball sandwiches to the guys if it were built from the inside out.

A geodesic design would be be self supporting. In space, I would guess, the diameter limitations could be increased.

No you all have it wrong.

They built the superlaser first and then built the core to match it. After that, they built the framework, shell, and then the trench with a 2 meter hole that led to the core.

The problem is that they ran out of money towards the end of the project and decided not to plug the hole to save costs and keep the project under budget.

(Notice on the second death star there was no 2 meter hole)

Everybody knows, you have to think 'outside the sphere' ;

http://cr4.globalspec.com/comment/139729/Re-Homemade-Light-Shade

An outer shell over an inner living area. The outer shell should probably be tear drop shaped for aerodynamics and fuel efficiency. I know tear dropped isn't as "pretty" as the hard lines seen on cars. We humans need to get over this hard lined box shape if we are ever to achieve any real form of space travel.

The inner living area would need to rotate to privide gravity. Thus the outer shell would need to have more mass than the inner living area and a stabilizer to keep it from rotating. This would make it challenging and dangerous for any repairs on the mechanical workings as they would need to be part of the outer shell. Or maybe the core of the ship has all mechanical rotating the living area. This option would allow the outer shell to rotate as well with some directional propulsion for changing course.

I see propulsion and the effects of planetary gravity being another major challenge. Maybe using a sling shot approach around planets could solve this along with save on some energy for propulsion. With the inner core mechanical thought, a long propulsion tube could be used to propel the ship forward.

I may have to take the time to create a working design for this. It seems very doable. Now if we just had a way to shield us against the solar winds and radiation. I guess a ship this size could possibly create a strong enough magnetic field.

There is a really excellent similar construct described in Marshall T. Savage's "The Millenial Project; Colonizing the Galaxy in 8 easy steps" if you can find a copy, it would be of great interest to both of you.

There was an associated had a website at www.luf.org, but you will have to join the yahoo group to get any further info. Here is some discussion of the plan ("Asgard") and others.

Chris