Related papers: Design Limits on Large Space Stations

Polygon spaces have been studied extensively, and yet missing from the literature is a simple property that every polygon has: dimension. This is distinct (possibly) from the dimension of the ambient space in which the polygon lives. A…

Cosmological observations are beginning to reach a level of precision that allow us to test some of the most fundamental assumptions in our working model of the Universe. One such an assumption is that gravity is governed by the General…

The increasing presence of robots in human environments requires them to exhibit socially appropriate behavior, adhering to social norms. A critical aspect in this context is the concept of personal space, a psychological boundary around an…

This chapter is about Complexity and Spatial Dynamics in Urban Systems. Strong inequalities in the size of cities and the apparent difficulty of limiting their growth raise practical issues for spatial planning. At a time when new…

For a general dark-energy equation of state, we estimate the maximum possible radius of massive structures that are not destabilized by the acceleration of the cosmological expansion. A comparison with known stable structures constrains the…

We give a brief summary of present bounds on the size of possible extra-dimensions from collider experiments.

The hypothesis of locality, its origin and consequences are discussed. This supposition is necessary for establishing the local spacetime frame of accelerated observers; in this connection, the measurement of length in a rotating system is…

This study identifies the limitations and underlying characteristics of urban mobility networks that influence the performance of the gravity model. The gravity model is a widely-used approach for estimating and predicting population flows…

The miniaturization of electronics, sensors and actuators has enabled the growing use of CubeSats and sub-20 kg spacecraft. Their reduced mass and volume has the potential to translate into significant reductions in required propellant and…

While robots are increasingly integrated into the built environment, little is known how their qualities can meaningfully influence our spaces to facilitate enjoyable and agreeable interaction, rather than robotic settings that are driven…

We present a semi-analytical population synthesis model of protoplanetary clumps formed by disk instability at radial distances of 80 - 120 AU. Various clump density profiles, initial mass functions, protoplanetary disk models, stellar…

The quantity and quality of cosmic structure observations have greatly accelerated in recent years. Further leaps forward will be facilitated by imminent projects, which will enable us to map the evolution of dark and baryonic matter…

We consider the problem of constructing public facilities, such as hospitals, airports, or malls, in a country with a non-uniform population density, such that the average distance from a person's home to the nearest facility is minimized.…

Gravitational radiation is an elusive form of radiation predicted by general relativity, it is the subject of intense theoretical and experimental research at the limit of the sensitivity of today's instrumentation. In spite of the fact…

A general sketch on how the problem of space dimensionality depends on anthropic arguments is presented. Several examples of how life has been used to constraint space dimensionality (and vice-versa) are reviewed. In particular, the…

The Flexible Image Transport System (FITS) standard has been a great boon to astronomy, allowing observatories, scientists and the public to exchange astronomical information easily. The FITS standard, however, is showing its age. Developed…

This paper addresses a fundamental and important question in control: under what conditions does there fail to exist a robust control policy that keeps the state of a constrained linear system within a target set, despite bounded…

The analysis of axisymmetric spacetimes, dynamical or stationary, is usually made in the reduced space. We prove here a stability property of the quo- tient space and use it together with minimal surface techniques to constraint the shape…

We present a novel scenario where a scalar field acquires a mass which depends on the local matter density: the field is massive on Earth, where the density is high, but is essentially free in the solar system, where the density is low. All…

The dynamics of a rigid, rotating, precessing, massive ring orbiting a point mass within the perimeter of the ring are considered. It is demonstrated that orbits dynamically stable against perturbations in three dimensions exist for a range…