on and on and on but not off

As happens so many times I get an idea and my brain and mind just keeps going. Yesterday I posted about asteroid mining and ended with what would be the use of it. So, more ideas.

First, a space farm module, a large cylindrically shaped space ship/station that orbits Earth in the high level of LEO near to other modules where people will live. The cylinder rotates to create centrifugal gravity at the inner surface of the cylinder at 0.5g or perhaps 0.4 or 0.6, depending on what ends up working best for the variety of plants that will grow. A large variety of plants but with a focus on staples like rice, wheat and potatoes would be attempted to be grown using a combination of hydroponics and perhaps some soil that is imported from Earth.

As described in the previous post, a number of layers of regolith bricks would be affixed to the outside of the cylinder for the purposes of temperature regulation, protection from small objects, and protection from radiation. On the outside of the regolith bricks would be solar panels so as to power the farm.

As much as possible would be mechanized, however, there would be worker quarters where I can imagine, like on a cruise ship on Earth, workers would be hired to work six months at a time. There would need to be imports of seeds and fertilizers and perhaps specific insects from Earth, until such things can be propagated somehow in space.

The market for the food would obviously be the other space stations and space ships that are out there. Once the first space farm is built a second one can be built learning from all of the lessons that were accumulated by having built the first one. There could be a different kind of space farm to farm fish where similarly a rotating cylinder that has water can be filled with fry from Earth on a regular schedule until a fry source can be created in space.

To finish off food, there could be a food processing space module that receives as inputs the harvests from the farm modules in bulk, and then makes things like 1kg bags of rice, loaves of bread, potatoes in various forms, and more processed food products in easier packaged sizes that can then be sent to the other space modules. 

Second, a space university, a large ring torus shaped space ship/station orbits the Earth in the high level of LEO near to other modules. The torus rotates so as to have a definite sense of up and down along the inside of the perimeter of the ring torus. There could be spokes to a central non-rotating core that can act as the port of the station and within those spokes are passenger and cargo elevators. Like the space farm above, it would be coated in regolith bricks and solar panels.

There would be the undergrad and graduate programs at this space university, with lodging provided for all students, teachers and staff. There would be a cafeteria for students, teachers and staff and like Earth bound universities there would be two main semesters which would allow for some of the people at the university to return to Earth during the 'summer'. 

Undergrad programs could include space engineering, space robotics, ships and engines, space materials science, space agriculture, space business development, space psychology, space arts and music and there could be similar graduate programs to do deeper research into some of these, like how to improve space ship drives, or space ship construction, or space materials science that could benefit Earth (and space) and so on.

I can imagine the space agriculture students doing tests at the university, but then doing a six month stage at the space farm module to see if those tests would work in a production environment. Space agriculture students could also learn about the infrastructure of the space farm module and get training on how to maintain that.

The space engineering students would learn about the mechanical, electrical, electromagnetics, gravity, solar and space background radiation, construction of stations and ships and all about the infrastructure of building things in space. Graduate programs would look into advanced engineering topics concerning how to build better in space.

The robotics, ships and engines students would learn how to build and program the robots, would learn about the different systems required to get a ship running, would learn how ship engines work and how to maintain them. Graduate students could test advanced engines and robots.

The university would also have a sports facility to try a variety of different sports at whatever gravity is being used on the torus. This could include a gymnasium, a pool and various smaller courts and rooms.

I think I am tapped out for now about this idea of our first steps into space with all sorts of LEO construction. Probably later today and tomorrow I will think of more.