Globus Cassus

[tmazanec1]

Interesting megastructure.
Could this be built by OA technology?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globus_Cassus

[ai_vin]

With OA tech? I think it would have to be OA tech as I doubt it could be built with the materials they describe. Would a nickle/iron shell, even one 150 km (93 mi) thick, have the tensile strength to handle 1G at that radius?

[stevebowers]

No. This is one of the most ridiculous megastructure proposals I've seen. Nothing about it makes sense. Only the equatorial regions are habitable, because only at the equator is the direction of centrifugal gravity normal to the surface.

And as AI Vin mentions, the structure would fall apart if it were made of baryonic matter - unless it rotated very slowly, making it into a low-gee habitat. Finally there is nothing holding up the poles - they would just collapse towards the centre, making Globus Cassus into a pancake.

[stevebowers]

Incidentally I am on the talk page for that article (as 'Eburacum') arguing that it is garbage and should be deleted, but the page remains because it is 'notable'. The discussion goes back to 2007, but the page remains. Wikipedia is far from perfect as an encyclopedia.