Talk:Terrarium (space habitat)

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I haven't read 2312 to see if there's anything new here, but other than coining the term 'asteroid terraria', which isn't half bad, this is hardly a new concept. Drilling a cylindrical shaft into an asteroid or smaller moon and nesting a rotating habitat into it is not a new concept, the asteroid provides minerals, oxygen, and cheap radiation shielding. I don't think anyone ever slapped a name on it, and asteroid terrarium sounds decent, but the article makes it seem like Robinson created the concept and also one wouldn't spin the asteroid for gravity. I don't know if that author error is Robinson or the person who did the page, but you'd spin the cylinder inside the asteroid for artificial gravity, not the asteroid, same as a washing machine or dryer has a spinning interior, we don't literally spin the entire machine. Not only is that energy-wasteful but there's a good chance you'd spin the asteroid apart. Consider, a 500-meter diameter cylinder spun for 1-g has to rotate twice a minute, if it was actually spinning the whole asteroid at that same angular velocity then some chunk 2 km from the axis would have 10-g working on it, shredding it rapidly. So, again, not a new concept, and as the article describes it not a functional one either. I'd suggest just merging it in as a sub-section on space habitats - Isaac — Preceding unsigned comment added by Caasi560 (talk • contribs) 03:06, 17 June 2013 (UTC)