Earth becomes a Ring World (what if situation)

[GrandMasterTerwynn]

Couple more things.

The atmosphere is slightly thicker and goes far higher up then it previously did. The edges of the Ring World are not habitable and produce strange weather patterns that make flight towards the very edge impossible. The Ring is not spinning at such a speed to make space travel impossible.

The night covers that move over the ring would interfere with satellite communications if they were ever achieved again.

How would they interfere with satellites? Though, I suppose they could do it in the way that the shadow squares did in Niven's novels . . . i.e. they aimed and directed the Meteor Defense superlaser.

[His Divine Shadow]

Couple more things.

The atmosphere is slightly thicker and goes far higher up then it previously did. The edges of the Ring World are not habitable and produce strange weather patterns that make flight towards the very edge impossible. The Ring is not spinning at such a speed to make space travel impossible.

The night covers that move over the ring would interfere with satellite communications if they were ever achieved again.

The night covers sound pretty useless, couldn't one just do like the culture and tilt the ringworld against the sun so its own rotation would create a natural night/day cycle?

[Alyeska]

Couple more things.

The atmosphere is slightly thicker and goes far higher up then it previously did. The edges of the Ring World are not habitable and produce strange weather patterns that make flight towards the very edge impossible. The Ring is not spinning at such a speed to make space travel impossible.

The night covers that move over the ring would interfere with satellite communications if they were ever achieved again.

The night covers sound pretty useless, couldn't one just do like the culture and tilt the ringworld against the sun so its own rotation would create a natural night/day cycle?

The Ring World would have to be spinning extremely fast.

[Zero]

The ringworld has to spin at a definite rate to maintain 1 g acceleration, and setting it to spin that way in a 24 hour cycle would likely put it above that rate. Setting the day/night cycles to a 24 hour schedual might be a good idea, as that's what life on earth is accustomed to, and I imagine there may be temperature issues as well. Here's a question... on this ringworld, will the atmosphere be sufficient to protect from the sun's shit? Is there any kind of magnetic field, or ozone layer?

[Imperial Overlord]

Wouldn't climate change on Earth?

[CaptainChewbacca]

Wouldn't climate change on Earth?

Some, yes. The lack of a coriolis force, for one, would change alot of things. On the plus side, atmospheric concentrations of CO2 would drop precipitously over the next years (it takes 5-10 years for earth air to fully circulate, expect dissipation to take maybe 5 years)

[Durandal]

Wouldn't climate change on Earth?

Some, yes. The lack of a coriolis force, for one, would change alot of things. On the plus side, atmospheric concentrations of CO2 would drop precipitously over the next years (it takes 5-10 years for earth air to fully circulate, expect dissipation to take maybe 5 years)

Hell, the world's entire ICBM stockpile would be totally worthless.

[Alyeska]

The ringworld has to spin at a definite rate to maintain 1 g acceleration, and setting it to spin that way in a 24 hour cycle would likely put it above that rate. Setting the day/night cycles to a 24 hour schedual might be a good idea, as that's what life on earth is accustomed to, and I imagine there may be temperature issues as well. Here's a question... on this ringworld, will the atmosphere be sufficient to protect from the sun's shit? Is there any kind of magnetic field, or ozone layer?

Atmosphere is still maintained as normal. Though the snowy climates are maintained through artifical enviroments because they now recieve direct sunlight. Seasons still occur as we are used too.

[Crossroads Inc.]

Heres a question... Would any Space program be seriously F*** Up? Since right now everything is based on orbits and constantly "Falling" around a round sphear, do we even know what properties would happen with a ring? Could send up a rocket? Could you send any sort of ship up?

[GrandMasterTerwynn]

Heres a question... Would any Space program be seriously F*** Up? Since right now everything is based on orbits and constantly "Falling" around a round sphear, do we even know what properties would happen with a ring? Could send up a rocket? Could you send any sort of ship up?

The local mass of the Ring would be much less than that of Earth's now. All the surface 'gravity' would be supplied by centrifugal force. Sending rockets up would be much easier. So would launching ships away from the Ring, since all you would have to do is somehow haul the ship up the rim mountains and drop it off the edge of the Ring.

[Durandal]

Heres a question... Would any Space program be seriously F*** Up? Since right now everything is based on orbits and constantly "Falling" around a round sphear, do we even know what properties would happen with a ring? Could send up a rocket? Could you send any sort of ship up?

There's no actual gravity holding you down; it's the result of centripetal acceleration creating a force perpendicular to a point on the inner surface of the ring. Once you leave that system, the gravity you have to deal with is negligible compared to the Earth's.

[Sriad]

There is a LOT of centripital acceleration, though. On the classic Niven type Ringworld you were moving along at nearly 800 miles per second. Achieving a normal solar orbit to let the ringworld speed by beneath you would take a delta V of 790 miles per second, and whatever energy you'd need to lower yourself to let the thin uppermost air drag you back up to speed. More feasible craft for long range travel might be...

...er...

...Nuclear megablimps. No, seriously. Pull yourself about 150 miles above ground (or whenever the air gets thin enough that your lift is at equilibrium), add thrust, and you could cover a good commercial airline style 15,000-20,000 km per day. Gather about a couple thousand smart folks, put a light minute or so between you and the rest of humanity, and do your own thing. By the time "Earth" gets big enough for serious contact, you'll hopefully be a good few tech levels above the religious ball 'n chain crowd.

Of course it could backfire and result in horrific terra-death wars upon re-unification, but what the hell.

[Losonti Tokash]

Why would you really need satellites, anyway? You now more or less have a direct line-of-sight to every location in the world (minus shadows created by mountains and such), so, unless I misunderstand the point of having satellites, there's no longer any need to bounce a signal around the curvature of the earth. Relay stations would probably be necessary to get around the weakening of signals over vast distances, though.

It occurs to me that we would temporarily lose the benefit of weather satellites, but once humanity spread out enough they could simply aim cameras at other inhabited parts of the world and have a similar effect.

[CaptainChewbacca]

Why would you really need satellites, anyway? You now more or less have a direct line-of-sight to every location in the world (minus shadows created by mountains and such), so, unless I misunderstand the point of having satellites, there's no longer any need to bounce a signal around the curvature of the earth. Relay stations would probably be necessary to get around the weakening of signals over vast distances, though.

It occurs to me that we would temporarily lose the benefit of weather satellites, but once humanity spread out enough they could simply aim cameras at other inhabited parts of the world and have a similar effect.

True, but remember the ring has a radius of 93 million miles, so to send a message from one side of the ring to the other would take a few minutes.

[Losonti Tokash]

Why would you really need satellites, anyway? You now more or less have a direct line-of-sight to every location in the world (minus shadows created by mountains and such), so, unless I misunderstand the point of having satellites, there's no longer any need to bounce a signal around the curvature of the earth. Relay stations would probably be necessary to get around the weakening of signals over vast distances, though.

It occurs to me that we would temporarily lose the benefit of weather satellites, but once humanity spread out enough they could simply aim cameras at other inhabited parts of the world and have a similar effect.

True, but remember the ring has a radius of 93 million miles, so to send a message from one side of the ring to the other would take a few minutes.

Yes, the Niven Ring is 93 million miles wide. However, the ring in the OP is only about 100,000 kilometers.

[Chmee]

There is a LOT of centripital acceleration, though. On the classic Niven type Ringworld you were moving along at nearly 800 miles per second. Achieving a normal solar orbit to let the ringworld speed by beneath you would take a delta V of 790 miles per second, and whatever energy you'd need to lower yourself to let the thin uppermost air drag you back up to speed. More feasible craft for long range travel might be...

...er...

...Nuclear megablimps. No, seriously. Pull yourself about 150 miles above ground (or whenever the air gets thin enough that your lift is at equilibrium), add thrust, and you could cover a good commercial airline style 15,000-20,000 km per day. Gather about a couple thousand smart folks, put a light minute or so between you and the rest of humanity, and do your own thing. By the time "Earth" gets big enough for serious contact, you'll hopefully be a good few tech levels above the religious ball 'n chain crowd.

Of course it could backfire and result in horrific terra-death wars upon re-unification, but what the hell.

Yeah, this is the fundamental problem of orbital mechanics on the Ringworld, it was a significant plot element in the book. Getting up to 790 miles per second is a pretty big leap for Earth technology.

Communication between human settlements as they spread shouldn't be too hard, just put up blimps with relaying gear. It's going to be a long time until we spread out to light-minutes away from the Earth map.

[Zero]

Why would you really need satellites, anyway? You now more or less have a direct line-of-sight to every location in the world (minus shadows created by mountains and such), so, unless I misunderstand the point of having satellites, there's no longer any need to bounce a signal around the curvature of the earth. Relay stations would probably be necessary to get around the weakening of signals over vast distances, though.

It occurs to me that we would temporarily lose the benefit of weather satellites, but once humanity spread out enough they could simply aim cameras at other inhabited parts of the world and have a similar effect.

True, but remember the ring has a radius of 93 million miles, so to send a message from one side of the ring to the other would take a few minutes.

Yes, the Niven Ring is 93 million miles wide. However, the ring in the OP is only about 100,000 kilometers.

I think in the OP, he meant that the ring itself had a width of 100km, not a radius of 100km.

[Alyeska]

True, but remember the ring has a radius of 93 million miles, so to send a message from one side of the ring to the other would take a few minutes.

Yes, the Niven Ring is 93 million miles wide. However, the ring in the OP is only about 100,000 kilometers.

I think in the OP, he meant that the ring itself had a width of 100km, not a radius of 100km.

Correct. The width is 100,000km while the circumferance is the normal Earth orbit.

[Hawkwings]

I stake out as much land as I can, then retire

I would figure that a lot of exploration underground would be in order, to find all the "advanced technology" sure to be there.

[Chmee]

Back to the geopolitical consequences ....

The orientation of our continents to the ring world .... is North America pointed at a wall, or to spinward or antispinward?

Suppose this happens with the current Administration in place .... and they decide the best way for the U.S. of A. to secure its 'Prosperity & Freedom' is to basically wall off growth in one direction exclusively for the U.S. and its neighbors. Could they feasibly block all growth in one direction and force Asia, Africa & Europe to grow only in the opposite direction? That gives us a 100,000 km front to defend, if I read the OP correctly.