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Project Hyperion: Interstellar ship design competition
Project Hyperion explores the feasibility of crewed interstellar travel via generation ships, using current and near-future technologies. A generation ship is a hypothetical spacecraft designed for long-duration interstellar travel, where the journey may take centuries to complete. The objective of the competition is to design the habitat of the generation ship, including its architecture and society.
Tharshan Maheswaran, Lina Salman, Sergio Santaeufemia Sánchez, Mario Butscher, Jovana Stojković, Branko Drčelić, Seraphine Arnold, Franziska Maier, Anja Rieker, Vanessa Schwaiger The highly elliptical minor cross-sections of the toroidal structures would require substantial reinforcement to counteract the natural tendency of internal pressure to deform them into circular shapes, resulting in significant mass penalties. The design demonstrates good system-level coherence, with particular strengths in its approach to artificial gravity: a rotating toroidal volume paired with two counter-rotating flywheels, enabling efficient spin-up and spin-down using electrical energy rather than propellant.
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