Intra-Sol Stories

The Outer Hull:  Deck 180 Structure

     The last group of decks are collected into one deck designation, Deck 180, also known as the Oort Ring and is the space station’s outer hull.

Six ten-meter subdecks compose the outer hull: A ring – innermost pressure seal, B-ring—water seal & pressure seal, C-ring—structural seal & pressure Seal, D-ring duplicate of C-ring, E-ring exterior mating seal & pressure seal, F-ring—external station hard-shell.

Water, other fluids, and gases are housed inside Deck 180B, absorbing radiation and high-energy particles. The Wheeled Extra-Vehicular Activity (WEVA) maintenance work locations are within Deck 180C.

Each cylinder has up to 180 decks, each 10 meters high. Deck 180F supports Gravity at 1.1 G.

     Deck 180F, in addition to the most structurally hardened shell, also hosts solar collector arrays, hyperspectral imaging arrays, radio telescope arrays, radio communications antenna phased arrays from HF to V bands, optical imaging arrays, and external hatches for maintenance activities. These hatches provide access to maintain the exterior surface of the space station and are spaced approximately one-half km apart across the circumference of each wheel for a total of 24 per wheel. Large industrial sized lifts starting at Deck 180A to Deck 180C support transport of the people and materials used to maintain all external systems. At Deck 180C, large work centers exist which connect to the external lift that pops out of Deck 180F. People and materials are upside down with respect to the exterior surface of Deck 180F, though in space, there is no “up” or “down”. The W-EVA openings are large to permit transport vehicles, cranes, and large sections of shield plates to pass through. This facilitates the continuous replacement and recycling of the external hull plates.

The Internal Structures:

     Back inside the space station, thirty-six sectors (i.e. spokes) divide each wheel up into zones. The sectors provide structural integrity and support bundles of VTLs to move people and material between decks.

Class C inhabited stations number sixty-eight inhabited stations out of the 89 stations in service as of the year 2468. They established a proven design with redundant pressure vessels and hardened structural decks.

    Wheel-One, designated as Sirus Wheel for all inhabited space stations, supports Operations and Control (O&C), the Space Traffic Control (STC) center, and Primary Sensor Control (PSC). The first five wheels fill out all 180 decks, and subsequent wheels use decks one through fifty-six for the Inner Space Dock (ISD). Decks 1 through 60 for Wheels 1 through 5 support hydroponic food production and zero gravity manufacturing. Class C stations are 3.7 km in diameter and can be up to 25 km in length (i.e. 25 wheels).

     Each wheel has a main spoke running to the center every ten degrees and hence, thirty-six spokes. These spokes house the main vertical transport lifts (VTL), which run from Deck 180A to Deck 80. At Deck 80 a separate VTL system is in place to isolate ISD activities from the station. On Wheels 1 through 5, this VTL system operates to Deck 1. The VTLs operate as electromagnetic levitation or maglev vehicles traveling on rails. Within a single deck, maglev vehicles transport vehicles called Horizontal Transport Lifts or HTS move people between the sectors on the deck. HTLs are also called shuttles. Robots or droids travel about similarly as do personnel carriers or P-levs. Droids have their own special purpose VTLs and HTLs, set up for droid use only.

     The ISD is 1.14 kilometers in diameter and starts at Wheel 6, extends through all later built wheels. All of these wheels open to space. Large ships remain station keeping along the central axis while smaller vessels maneuver to a Deck 57 airlock location where they have 0.3 G pressing them against the inner hull. The Inner hull has some similarities to the outer haul, though it consists of only three decks in thickness (decks 59, 58, and 57). It has hard plating on the space side and attachment points to secure equipment and ships against the hull. Similar to Deck 180, WEVA maintenance are located in Deck 58 and they have access to the ISD interior.

Power Source. 

     Power generation is the most critical function provided by the space station, subsequently, there are two different nuclear power sources and two different solar generation systems. These two types of power generation are replicated in each wheel.

Primary power is from nuclear fission and nuclear fusion generation. Fission direct nuclear conversion reactors provide electrical power from isotope decay. Spent fuels are reconstructed into reduced isotope radioactive components, reprocessed, and reused. Fuel cells have an expected minimum 100 years term of use. Nuclear fuels collected from asteroids as radioactive isotopes or HE3 provide the fusion nuclear source for power generation. HE3 has no radioactive byproducts.

     Solar collection Arrays are the third power generation method for Inhabited Space Stations. Solar collection for space stations in Venus, Earth, and to a smaller degree, Mars orbits provide reliable power generation, but not to the levels needed for the massive space stations, though it is satisfactory for smaller outposts and research stations close to the sun. Solar generation panels are integrated into the exterior hull of all stations, collecting solar energy for electrical power generation. Solar generation is also used for reliable emergency power.

     Solar Collectors/Stationary Observatories. External to the Class B/C/D inhabited station are satellites that provide solar mirror collection to increase the solar light and energy collection. Multiple solar furnaces feed receptors on the bow to augment the solar collection on the outer hull. These satellites provide a non-rotating platform for optical telescopes and other equipment hindered by the space station’s constant rotation. Solar radiation is collected as optical beams into the space station for natural light sources for inhabited areas of the station, where natural sunlight undergoes photonic amplification and lights common areas and provides safety lighting on all walls facing Wheel 1. This provides a bearing for every occupied room in the station.

     Gyroscopic Stabilization. Solar Collectors and other external satellites stabilize the space station’s solar orbits through electromagnetic coupling to structures on the external surface of the super wheel stations. Electromagnetic fields are modulated to keep the space station oriented with the bow forward and the solar arrays pointed towards the sun while they rotate about the central axis. The EM coupling also minimizes flexure stresses along the length of the stations. Plasma jets and EM thrusters, placed uniformly on the outer hull of each wheel, assist as necessary to maintain pointing. In planetary orbits, the external satellites keep the bow forward only and do not attempt to maintain maximum solar alignment. The giant super wheel space stations are “built in place” and have no primary means of propulsion.

     Spacecraft Power Sources. Lattice Assisted Nuclear Reactions (LANR) provide direct electrical power for transport craft, powering both ion motors and EM drives. LANR and HE2 are both used for power generation on larger ships, but HE2 fusion generation has higher output ratings and is used as primary power. Amon these ships are the intra-solar cruisers used for passenger and logistics transport, and the intra-solar arch ships sent to plant civilization on other star systems. The Seelenreise and her sister ship the Star Quest were HE2 powered ships with EM drives for primary thrust and Ion motors used for maneuvering thrusters.