Science & Futurism with Isaac Arthur cover image

The Megastructure Compendium

Science & Futurism with Isaac Arthur

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Cylinder Habitats

Cylinder habitats operate on two critical principles. Gravity can be mimicked by rotation using the same centerfugal force effect that washing machine spin cycles use. It takes far less mass to build a cylinder or ring habitat than an equal amount of naturally gravitating surface area on a planet, generally many hundreds of thousands of times more living area per unit of construction materials. Cylinder habitats are expected to make up the bulk of residential habitats and nature preserves in space as well as being common features of any spaceship with humans on board. A civilization seeking to maximize o'neil cylinders around a star would require roughly a quadrillion such cylinder habitats, each home to potentially hundreds of thousandsof

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