Space has long been considered the final frontier. While the inhabitants of earth have gradually explored every nook and cranny of their planet, they have made little headway in seeing what lies beyond their own atmosphere. For a period of time, the attention of humanity was fixated on space, and great efforts were made to traverse the barrier into the great unknown. Almost as quickly as this interest developed, it was gone. Logistical, financial, and polital hurdles caused the focus to turn away from the vastness of space and towards the microscopic phenomena of earth. This new focus rapidly furnished technologies far superior to what had been seen before.
It is time to reinvent space travel as we know it. Rethinking old approaches and conventions can make the seemingly impossible possible. I have personally always been fascinated with the idea of an orbital ring. In my childhood, I watched a show called "Teknoman" set in a post-apocalyptic future. In this show, the orbital ring, a scientific and military installation, was used to defend the earth against alien invaders. It basically served as a weapon in that context, but, in reality, it could be so much more.
Upon recently revisiting this show, I realized that an orbital ring could serve many purposes. For one, a structure that wraps around the circumference of the atmosphere would inevitably provide a massive amount of space for many uses. It could provide a new living environment for people, space for scientific research, and, if necessary, military usage. One of the most attractive uses could be a way station between earth and space. As a building platform, it would allow for low gravity construction, space ship docking, and the usage of earth to station craft and station to space craft, as is most suitable.
A project of this size would require a massive, if not impossible, amount of construction. First, though, the working environment of construction and maintentance (once assmebled) must be considered. Space has no air, is extremely cold, and has extremely low to negligible gravity. This is an ideal envirnment to use robots that can build in conditions harsh to humans. An outside possibility includes the station, when at a certain level of completion, would actually finish itself. Such would be an impressive feat of self replication. Some other requirements would include a supply chain from earth or other planets to the station for raw materials. Also, the station would need to establish self-sutaining heat, power, and oxygen production sources, as well as artificial gravity production.
The link below connects to an example of an orbital ring, while the picture shows the space ring from the television show in the background.
<comment: Mar - This link seems to be broken or expired. I can't open it.>
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