Stanford Torus On The Big Screen!

[Sim Koning]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJ-bYOyQ46Y

Same director as District 9. It appears he is once again drawing from his experience growing up in Jo'burg, South Africa. The last film was an apartheid allegory, while this movie appears to be extrapolating from SA's enormous income inequality.

I'm glad hard SF elements are slowly trickling into Hollywood. We got to see a semi-plausible starship in Avatar, and now we get too see a Stanford torus -- albeit a slightly inaccurate one -- on the big screen.

[Drashner1]

This looks like a fun movie I really enjoyed District 9 and hope this one is as good. The internal imagery of a 'realistic' space hab looks really cool. Looking forward to seeing this when it comes out.

Thanks for the link!

Todd

[Sim Koning]

Check out the websites. The worldbuilding is incredible.

http://armadyne.net/ The "corporate" website

http://www.civilcooperationbureau.com/ The Civil Cooperation Bureau site

http://www.welcometoelysium.com/ Elysium site, as in a fictional site for the actual station, not the movie : )

[John M. Dollan]

This looks outstanding! District 9, I thought, was a great flick. I love how this one is projecting a fairly plausible future.

[stevebowers.]

I don't see anything wrong with the depiction of Elysium, except that it is in low Earth Orbit, wheras it would be a lot safer in a much higher location (but it wouldn't look quite so spectacular).

[Rynn]

Looking forward to it though I worry that the story may be a bit generic action SF.

[Sim Koning]

I don't see anything wrong with the depiction of Elysium, except that it is in low Earth Orbit, wheras it would be a lot safer in a much higher location (but it wouldn't look quite so spectacular).

I'm not sure if the habitat is fully enclosed or if the atmosphere is exposed to space like a Banks orbital. Also, shouldn't it have a large mirror to direct sunlight into the habitat?

I like how the torus edge faces the sun in at least one scene.

Regardless, it's better than seeing another "space building" with magical gravity generators.

[stevebowers.]

Ah. Even the 50km high walls of a Bishop Ring aren't sufficient to keep the atmosphere in efficiently, so they need a thin transparent membrane as well. The tube of a Stanford Torus would be under almost full atmospheric pressure so would need a more substantial roof.

If you include a mirror into the Stanford Torus design, it does receive sunlight in a more controllable fashion; but it also adds extra heat to the habitat, which is why the traditional design includes a radiator. Without a mirror the ring receives light direct from the Sun, like a Banks Orbital.

[Drashner1]

Bishop ring walls are described as ranging from 50 to 200km high, depending on the design of the ring. A bit of air will eventually leak out over even the highest walls, but it will be a very little bit and can easily be replaced. Probably anything from 100km on up will lose air at a glacially slow pace.

[stevebowers.]

50 km is described as the edge of space, at least as far as Earth is concerned; but there is still a significant atmosphere at that level, and losses would be quite rapid if the walls were only that high. On the other hand 200 km walls would block out quite a lot of sky as seen from the ground- one might as well lie in a sealed torus. Perhaps the top of the wall could be made transparent somehow.