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<blockquote data-quote="tomBitonti" data-source="post: 6880287" data-attributes="member: 13107">For multiple tori, I was imagining them side by side.&nbsp; I agree, putting them one inside the other is problematic.If left alone, there would be no forces to cancel out.&nbsp; There is a force when you try to re-orient (turn) the spinning cylinder.&nbsp; The forces from two spinning cylinders can be made to cancel.&nbsp; (The force is perpendicular to how you are trying to turn the cylinder.&nbsp; Two of the ends will push in to each other; the other two wifi pull apart.)Each cylinder will keep rotating forever, unless acted on by external forces.&nbsp; The two could act on each other, but presumable that would be prevented by keeping the cylinders apart.&nbsp; The connection struts would need a low friction coupling.&nbsp; I suppose there would be small losses, say, due to induced current from spinning in the earth's magnetic field.&nbsp; (Induced currents might be a huge problem, but I don't know hardly enough about that to say more.)I don't think I'm qualified to say much about active shielding either, except that it only works for charged particles (I think).&nbsp; I don't think it works for high speed neutrons or high energy photons. In any case, I have no idea whether passive or active shielding is better for big space stations.Thx!TomB</blockquote>

[QUOTE="tomBitonti, post: 6880287, member: 13107"] For multiple tori, I was imagining them side by side. I agree, putting them one inside the other is problematic. If left alone, there would be no forces to cancel out. There is a force when you try to re-orient (turn) the spinning cylinder. The forces from two spinning cylinders can be made to cancel. (The force is perpendicular to how you are trying to turn the cylinder. Two of the ends will push in to each other; the other two wifi pull apart.) Each cylinder will keep rotating forever, unless acted on by external forces. The two could act on each other, but presumable that would be prevented by keeping the cylinders apart. The connection struts would need a low friction coupling. I suppose there would be small losses, say, due to induced current from spinning in the earth's magnetic field. (Induced currents might be a huge problem, but I don't know hardly enough about that to say more.) I don't think I'm qualified to say much about active shielding either, except that it only works for charged particles (I think). I don't think it works for high speed neutrons or high energy photons. In any case, I have no idea whether passive or active shielding is better for big space stations. Thx! TomB [/QUOTE]

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