Le 2011/06/24 00:32, SharkD a écrit :
> On 6/23/2011 11:49 PM, Alain wrote:
>> The fuel tanks for the attitude thrusters are relatively small as they
>> are relatively rarely used, and for only short times. They can logicaly
>> be located inside the outer shell.
>>
>> Get rid of the solar pannels? Why?
>> Solar energy is the ONLY resource that is not scarse up there. You want
>> to get as much of it as possible. For that reason, I think that the
>> solar pannels sould be at least 10 to 100 times larger.
>> Having extra energy allows for beter recycling of the air and water,
>> improve food production and greatly helps producing the manufactured
>> goods you need. It can also help with your trusters by using ion based
>> thrusters or chimical thrusters fitted with some overheating device to
>> greatly increase ejection speed, and thus, get more thrust from the same
>> amount of propellant. Use smaller fuel storage, and make it last much,
>> much longer.
>>
>>
>>
>> Alain
>
> Well, I just thought both a reactor and solar panels were a bit redundant.
>
>

In space, redundancy is an absolute must!
If you must shut down the reactor for any reason, you realy do need some 
other power source. The solar pannels will support the station during 
that time.

If the solar pannels are damaged, the reactor will take the relay.

Then, you have some fuel cells and some alternate, emergency, power sources.

You need fuel for the reactor, that fuel must be imported = bad. The 
solar pannels never need any fuel =good.

The reactor need to be able to support all of the station's power needs, 
and the same old true for the solar pannels.




Alain

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