Spin gravity and tangents (was Re: OFF-TOPIC mini review B5 Wars)

Apologies in advance for the tangental topics below.

1) On Wed, Jul 30, 1997 at 12:57:29 PM, "Phillip E. Pournelle" wrote:

> >> Hahahahaha! Zero-G is the LEAST of their problems. If that
rotational 
> >> section jams, what happens with all that angular momentum? Answer:
the 
> >> rest of the ship starts spinning! 
> > 
> >Considering the mass and monentum, what would happen is the rest of
the 
> >ship would disintegrate... 
> >One may assume that there are contra-rotating Flywheels that are 
> >connected to slow things down. 
>  
> This is why most rational nations would have their entire ship 
> rotate in one piece during peacetime steaming, relie on "gravity" 
> generated by thrust and secure for combat and stop all rotations.  You

> can read about sanely operated war ships in Mote in God's Eye. 

Another good example of this is Michael McCollum's _Antares_ series,
which 
includes ships with rings surrounding a cylindrical core. The ships
rotate 
when not accelerating or engaging in hangar bay ops. 

I recommend McCollum's books, with one caveat -- if you haven't read
either 
_Mote_ nor the _Antares_ books, read the _Antares_ books *first*.  The 
technology is fundamentally similar in both (except McCollum doesn't
have 
force fields), and while MM does a better job of describing what the
ships 
look like, the mechanics of the jump drive, etc., JEP and LN are better 
prosesmiths.  This should not be interpreted as a criticism of Mr.
McCollum -- 
I am a _really_ big fan of his work, and own all of his novels.  (I may
own 
all of JEP's, as well -- he's more prolific, so there's more to keep
track 
of.)  See my sig below for info on McCollum.

2) Has anyone attempted a gaming campaign based on either the _Mote_ or 
_Antares_ backgrounds?	I would expect that Pournelle's end of the First

Empire period (Sauron War) would provide some exciting campaigns, as
would the 
battle between the _MacArthur_ and the New Chicago cruiser in _Reflex_.

3) There was a long thread about rotating ships/sections on the _2300ad_

mailing list.  One of the members, a former naval aviator turned physics
PhD 
candidate, points out that for ship-size objects, there are some nasty
side 
effects of spin.  Basically, if your head is oriented in a particular 
direction, it feels like gravity, but if you turn your head sideways,
the 
coriolis effect does all sorts of nasty things to your inner ear.  

4) As an alternative to spin, Marshall Savage argues in his _The
Millennial 
Project: Colonizing the Galaxy in 8 Easy Steps_ (1992) that the latest 
research indicates that special skin-tight garments and
electro-stimulation of 
muscle groups (while sleeping) would provide the necessary tension and 
exercise to prevent loss of bone mass and muscle tone.	He also
postulates 
spacesuits of the skin-tight semi-permeable design used by JEP and LN in

_Mote_, with tungsten armor over the top of them for radiation
shielding.

I enjoyed the first thirty pages of this book so much that I called up
the 
First Millenial Foundation and ordered a second copy in hardcover.  I'm
not 
sure I buy all of Mr. Savage's calculations, but the man sure has
vision, and 
the book is definitely worth the $25 (hardcover) price tag.

http://www.millennial.org
http://www.millennial.org/~pzack/FMFStore/Store.html

5) Has anyone else:

(a) seen the disappointing _Guide to Larry Niven's Ringworld_?;

(s) concluded that the publisher should have simply acquired the rights
to the 
_Ringworld_ rpg, stripped out the game-related stuff, and published it
as the 
_Guide_ instead?; and 

(d) thought that a _Guide to Jerry Pournelle's CoDominium_ (complete
with lots 
of blueprints and tech data) would be something they would purchase?

I suggested the latter to JEP once; he responded that he didn't think
there 
was any market for it.	<sigh>

Well, enough tangents for one day.

-- Chris Weuve	 [My opinions, not my employer's.]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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mailto:caw@wizard.net (h)	  Sci Fi-Arizona: books and essays by
mailto:caw@intercon.com (w)	  Michael McCollum 
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