On 20 Jul 2010, at 22:47, Jonathan Jones wrote: What time period is this whole thing happening? I'd like it to be contemporary. If it's sufficiently far enough in the future, it's easy to justify a much quicker trip than a week. Technological advances could easily account for a trip that would currently take as much as a week being much shorter. That wouldn't be noticeable from Earth, it's not like it would cast a coherent shadow that far out, and even if it did, it would sweep across the Earth's surface as fast as the Earth rotates - nobody would notice it. L2 is just as bad as the station would then be in eternal night due to the sun being eclipsed by the sun L2's already discounted due to that. L3 is on the other side of Earth's orbit L3 is a possibility with some relay stations between it and Earth. , and L1-L3 are very unstable locations, requiring frequent velocity corrections to maintain position. Some good points, here's what I personally like and dislike about the Earth-Sun Lagrangian point locations. Closest to Earth, only 5.1ish seconds for Earth-Lojgugde comms Great place to hide the station in "plain sight" Relatively debris-free In the story, the solar panels in the sea around the Lojgugde Earth station double up as a Very Large Array radio telescope. They point at the Sun during the day for their solar energy collecting mode, and don't have to change orientation to check on Lojgugde in their telescope mode. At night they can orient in various directions to scan the outer reaches of the solar system for incoming potential dangers to Lojgugde. They may, however, each have to be able to physically change shape into a parabolic dish with a pop-up feedhorn to switch mode. Still, I think the idea's cool. L1 Cons: Unstable, most energy to maintain position Doesn't get the best view of the cosmos vs L2 (we could put a science observation station at L2 that doesn't rely on solar energy, nuclear fusion perhaps?) L4/L5 Pros: Stable gravity bowl, least energy to maintain position Gravity bowl allows for asteroids to be kept near the station during mining L4/L5 Cons: Distant from Earth, around 8 minutes for Earth-Lojgugde comms Gravity bowl means potentially plenty of random debris, might be a recipe for disaster Location might attract more attention from Earth-based scientists, be easier to spot with standard 'scopes, and generally less secret if Lojgugde is to be hidden from the masses Anyone want to add to those before a decision for the show is finalised? kozmikreis
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