Mesogravity

From apm
Jump to: navigation, search
This article defines a novel term (that is hopefully sensibly chosen). The term is introduced to make a concept more concrete and understand its interrelationship with other topics related to atomically precise manufacturing. For details go to the page: Neologism.
  • Gravity Much lower than the one of planets
  • Gravity much higher than what is considered micro-gravity (minute residual tidal forces and such)

Possible lower limits

  • Gravity of human built structures?? This will grow though ...
  • Gravitational effects well perceptible by human senses without advanced measurement devices
    – e.g. drift around and in caverns inside of asteroids
    – this one seems better but still vague

Possible upper limits

  • Everything that a body not rounded by it's own gravity can deliver. Asteroid Vesta 0.025g ~ 0.25m/s^2 ? – this is already pretty high
  • Gravity of the biggest asteroid in the asteroid belt – the dwarf-planet Ceres 0.029g – similar – seem too high
  • Gravity of the biggest metallic asteroids (Psyche ~0.144m/s^2)
  • For humans dangerous fall heights are notably bigger than optimal colonization cavity diameter (a few 100m) – this one is nice but wishy-washy

Safe fall in a in a colonization cavern

We know from Earth that a fall from 0.5m height @ 9.81m/s^2 is rather endurable.
So: v_max = sqrt(2*g*h) = sqrt(2*10m/s^2*0.5m) = ~3.2m/s

Assuming a cavity size of 200m
a_max = v_max^2/(2*d_cavity) = 10(m/s^2)^2/(2*200m) = 1/40m/s^2 = 0.025m/s^2
– that is crudely rounded about one eighth of what the larges asteroids have to offer (see above)
– so silicatic asteroids with half the diameter of the biggest ones are already small enough to are quite safe for ~200m diameter colonization caverns.

Related


External links