An orbital ring is a space mega-structure similar to a space elevator. Orbital rings are active support structures where a metal 'ring' is spinning around the earth at orbital speeds while platforms are magnetically supported above the ring and are not in orbit, they are stationary to the ground. Cables can be dropped to the ground for moving people and goods up into low orbit. See the video that inspired this project.
This program can display a specified ring on a globe, calculate the population under a ring, and calculate all possible rings to determine which ring would maximize the population under it.
The program was tuned to maximize parallel computation and the resolution of the population raster was tested to calculate the most accurate population in the least amount of time.
The 'width' of the ring is the effective reach of the cables. Instead of dropping straight down, a cable can be dropped at an angle. The width is measured from the center of the ring to one edge and can be specified in the ring_file. The image above shows a ring with the width of 100km indicated by the orange hash marks.
The results of an experiment to calculate the populations under all possible rings with a 100km width are included in the /results/ folder. Click here for all results.
This program uses GeographicLib which has several install options.
This installation works on macOS Catalina 10.15.6 and a conda enviornment.
Plotly requires an active internet connection to display a globe.
brew install geographiclib
pip install -r requirements.txt
orbital_ring.py can run two types of files:
- -f : latitude, longitude, azimuth files, starts on equator to specify ring
- -F : lat1, lon1, lat2, lon2 files, specify ring from two points
Below are quickstart examples made with ring_files created by the author. These will display the specified rings on a globe.
python3 orbital_ring.py -f ./ring_files/usa_top_1.txt -g
python3 orbital_ring.py -f ./ring_files/usa_top_10.txt -g
python3 orbital_ring.py -f ./ring_files/world_top_1.txt -g
python3 orbital_ring.py -f ./ring_files/world_top_10.txt -g
python3 orbital_ring.py -f ./ring_files/world_top_100.txt -g
python3 orbital_ring.py -f ./ring_files/world_worst_30.txt -gBelow is a ring_file that specifies a ring from two points and calculates the population underneath. The -L flag limits the ring to between the two points, not around the globe, and the -p flag calculates the population. This file was used to test the accuracy of the population calculator by calculating the population of a line segment over New Zealand.
python3 orbital_ring.py -F ./ring_files/new_zealand_line.txt -g -L -p-f file.txt : calculate rings with start lat/lon and azim
-F file.txt : calculate rings with start lat/lon and end lat/lon
-c file.txt : calculate rings with a city's lat/lon **
default : if no file is specified, the default will calculate longitudes 0-179
by 1 degree increments, with azimuths 90 to -90 by -1 degree increments
default excludes showing rings on a globe
-g : show globe containing rings in specified file
-w : show perpendicular width hashes on globe rings
-l length : calculate for a line of specified length, not a ring, only works with -f
-L : calculate for a line, only works with -F
-p : calculate the population of the specified rings or lines
-s out.csv : save results of a simulation, will prompt to save
if calculation time is longer than 10 minutes
