Cickbait title translation: Expandable space habitats have lots of engineering issues distributing pressure without cascading failures. The solution might be in the shape of mylar birthday...
Cickbait title translation: Expandable space habitats have lots of engineering issues distributing pressure without cascading failures. The solution might be in the shape of mylar birthday balloons, first described by Bernoulli.
Fascinating article, thanks for sharing it here! This thread seems like as good a place as any to declare my ignorance about micrometeorite hazards in space. I’m not sure where I got the idea...
Fascinating article, thanks for sharing it here!
This thread seems like as good a place as any to declare my ignorance about micrometeorite hazards in space. I’m not sure where I got the idea from, but I’ve been under the impression for years that these things can be both super tiny (think 1 cubic cm or less) and traveling at speeds so fast that they can sail neatly through an astronaut’s spacesuit and entire body in an instant, like hypersonic bullets. And these would be moving unpredictably and be impossible to track the locations of so advance warning wouldn’t be feasible. Basically any space mission would be at constant risk of encountering them and facing spontaneous catastrophic failure. Bit of a phobia of mine.
Of course, we’ve been going to space for decades and that isn’t happening. Clearly I picked up some bad info at some point. Can anybody here paint me a more accurate picture of what the risks are for micrometeorite impact? When I hear about inflatable habitats like this, my head fills with so many images of giant balloons popping in space. But apparently that’s not a realistic concern?
Cickbait title translation: Expandable space habitats have lots of engineering issues distributing pressure without cascading failures. The solution might be in the shape of mylar birthday balloons, first described by Bernoulli.
Interesting article.
Fascinating article, thanks for sharing it here!
This thread seems like as good a place as any to declare my ignorance about micrometeorite hazards in space. I’m not sure where I got the idea from, but I’ve been under the impression for years that these things can be both super tiny (think 1 cubic cm or less) and traveling at speeds so fast that they can sail neatly through an astronaut’s spacesuit and entire body in an instant, like hypersonic bullets. And these would be moving unpredictably and be impossible to track the locations of so advance warning wouldn’t be feasible. Basically any space mission would be at constant risk of encountering them and facing spontaneous catastrophic failure. Bit of a phobia of mine.
Of course, we’ve been going to space for decades and that isn’t happening. Clearly I picked up some bad info at some point. Can anybody here paint me a more accurate picture of what the risks are for micrometeorite impact? When I hear about inflatable habitats like this, my head fills with so many images of giant balloons popping in space. But apparently that’s not a realistic concern?