So, I am starting to research the sci-fi story and very pleasant it is too. I was thinking about locations for the various parts of the story and remembered those ‘big wheels’ from the 60’s and 70’s – those things that float in space and look really good from the inside. I found out that the most popular one is called the ‘Stanford Torus‘.
You get views like this. It all looks quite utopian but of course it wouldn’t be.
Anyway I then found that in actual fact, whereas I thought these were simply figments of sci-fi writers’ minds in those days, NASA did do quite a detailed study about their viability.
NASA’s space colony viability report.
It makes interesting reading. For one thing, the cost would be astronomical – 50Bn in those days. I am not sure what that is now but I would guess at least 4 times that – so 200Bn. At first I thought – well who would fund this and why was NASA even thinking seriously about it? Perhaps, since the Cold War was still on, they were thinking about evacuating people. But actually it’s not that much. I found out yesterday that a certain City’s banks are preparing to pay out 50Bn in bonuses this year.
Now I need to start thinking about what life would be like on one of these colonies and what sort of political environment would it be. It will be interesting to think it through.
Lazlo Ferran | Vampire, Werewolf and Sci-fi Books 
Your wheel has made me think of something quite of a different nature – the Hadron Accelerator in Switzerland which became functional not too long ago and then had to shut down because of some foreign bodies that were discovered in the tunnels (rats or mice if I'm not mistaken)! Anyway I was expecting the device to show up in a plethora of new SF or Doomsayer type movies and stories as many people consider it science out of control or beyond our understanding at this point in time. The only film (and book obviously) to date, and to my knowledge, that has used it is: Dan Brown's Angels and Demons – which, I am embarrassed to say, actually enjoyed – especially after developing an intense dislike to his very questionable Da Vinci Code.
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