

A Few Notes On The Culture, by Iain M. Banks - jacquesm
http://nuwen.net/culture.html

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ansible
From the notes:

 _Of course, the materials used in the construction of something ten million
kilometers in circumference spinning once every 24 hours are far beyond
anything we can realistically imagine now, and it is quite possible that the
physical constraints imposed by the strength of atomic bonds ensure that such
structures will prove impossible to construct, but if it is possible to build
on a such a scale and subject such structures to forces of these magnitudes,
then I'd submit that there is an elegance in using the same rotation to
produce both an acceptable day-night cycle and an apparent gravity which makes
the idea intrinsically attractive._

I've been thinking off and on about materials needed to construct an orbital.
[1]

To construct an entire ring (as opposed to just two opposing plates held in
place by tractor beams), I believe that nothing more exotic than regular steel
would be required. Solid mountains of stone might be a challenge, but making
them hollow is feasible. And having oceans with an average depth of 4km should
be readily achievable too.

If, for example, a 100m thick steel ring is not sufficient to construct an
orbital, I'd like to hear otherwise.

[1]
[http://www.reddit.com/r/TheCulture/comments/11mt3m/speculati...](http://www.reddit.com/r/TheCulture/comments/11mt3m/speculation_about_the_construction_of_a_culture/)

