An Early History Of Space Stations: The Brick Moon Made Real

A historical survey traces the rotating-wheel space station concept from Edward Everett Hale's 1869 fiction The Brick Moon through Tsiolkovsky, Oberth, and Hermann Noordung's 1929 Wohnrad design, to Wernher von Braun's famous 1952 Collier's wheel station and Disney television specials. It explains the physics behind spin gravity, including the formula a=ω²r, RPM-to-diameter tradeoffs, Coriolis effects limiting practical rotation speed, and why the outer rim rather than the sidewall serves as the floor, noting Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey got this detail right while many other films get it wrong.

Source: https://hackaday.com/2026/08/20/an-early-history-of-space-stations-the-brick-moon-made-real. 8 Sync News only summarizes and links out; content copyright belongs to the authors and original sources.