Kalpana One
Kalpana One named after Kalpana Chawla who died in the space shuttle Columbia Tragedy is a proposed space station. A rotating cylinder with a 250-meter radius, 325 meters (about the height of the Empire State Building) tall. With 550,000 square meters (about twice the area of a large shopping mall) of Living working and recreational space on the main level, 1g normal gravity with room for 3,000 people.
Inside Kalpana consists of 7 nested cylinders. The inner cylinders are attached to each end-cap and extend partially into the main cylinder allowing for light from the central hub to illuminate the main living area.
The outer cylinder is the main living area with 1g normal earth gravity. The inner cylinders have progressively less gravity. With the center cylinder home to low-g sports and recreation. The first inner cylinder will be used for food production to feed the population of Kalpana One. The next two inner cylinders will be used for storage of food and supplies. Further inwards on inner cylinders 4 and 5 we will have room for low G manufacturing. Inner ring 6 will have low-g swimming area that will also act as the water supply for the station. The innermost ring will have low-g sports and recreational activities
Kalpana One will need radiation shielding to prevent to keep the inhabitants safe from cosmic rays. This can be accomplished by lining the inside of the 1g outer ring, This would require 10 tons of regolith from the Moon or Near Earth Objects (NEO). This will also provide soil to grow trees and plants as well as grass to better simulate living on Earth.
The outside of the hull will be covered in solar panels, this will provide emergency power for the station. The bulk of energy for Kalpana One will be from Solar Power Satellites (SPS) beaming microwave energy to a rectenna on the hull that will fully power the station. To provide power for life support, agriculture and industry we will need to generate 60 kW of electricity per person for a total of 180 MW of continuous power. This will create a lot of heat and we will need a way to dissipate that heat. For this a radiator will be built around the equator.
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<-- Interior View Robotic farming --> |
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Images courtesy Brian Versteeg Spacehabs.com
Original article by Al Globus, Nitin Arora, Ankur Bajoria, Joe Strout.
