SPECIFICATIONS


           The Bernal Sphere project began in 2095 AD as part of the preliminary preparations for the LaGrange Project of building O'Neill style space islands in the L4 and L5 LaGrange points inside the Earth-Lunar Sphere to house the wealthy elite of Earth who sought to flee the planet due to what was commonly called at the time "an infestation of common problems". The first Bernal industrial sphere took eight years to complete. At 42 miles long and 53 miles in diameter, the first of these behemoth space stations was an engineering feat in and of itself. Once the first one was built, the second Bernal industrial sphere took a quarter of the time it took to build the first one because many of the major parts of the second station were built in the first one. The first Bernal station was used to continuously construct new Type-2 Bernal Sphere stations from 2139 to 2147.By that time nearly fifteen of these monster industrial space stations were operational.  All of which were working 24 hours, seven days a week to build components for the O'Neill colonies that were under construction. In addition to the parts for the O'Neill cylinders, the Type-2 Bernal Spheres built the Atlas class of ships for UNOOSA (United Nations Office of Outer Space Affairs) in exchange for the Atlas class ships towing the newly constructed Bernal Spheres to the LaGrange points they were needed at.

           During the Great War, the increasingly large number of Bernal Spheres (twenty by that time) were used to refit the space fleet of the LaGrange Colonies in 2151-52, and construct a new space navy for the USSN in the late 2150s after the war had technically ended.  By 2165 there were almost thirty Bernal Spheres completed.  This entire group of industrial facilities were put towards building the Earth Federal Space Navy prior to the 1st Interplanetary War.  The industrial might of the LaGrange Republics rested in the construction of these monster machine factories and by 2185 over seventy were operational (including the first one built) in the Sol star system.

           The Type-2 used 16, large, industrial scale thermonuclear reactors as its primary power source. These spherically shaped reactors were enormous, and were housed outside of the sphere to protect the inhabitants. The interior of the sphere was hollow, with a primary interior that held huge industrial complexes, and a central shaft that ran through the z-axis of the space station that was open to space. This central shaft opened up into a smaller sphere inside the main body of the Bernal Sphere where construction of ships and parts for large objects could be done in zero-g with ease (accelerating construction). The open ended shafts allowed a continuous production line of craft and materials coming in one end, and completed ships, and projects coming out the other. The water storage, and treatment sections of the station consisted of smooth concentric rings on "front" end of the station. While the raw material section was a series of angular rings on the "aft" end. The primary habitat section was a large Von Braun space station anchored to the main body of the sphere. This ring used a honeycomb plastic-steel webbing that held the semi-clear see-through, solar panel cover over the colony. The colony held considerably less people in it than the O'Neill cylinders. Where the O'Neill cylinders hold nearly a million people, the Bernal Spheres only hold a little over 100,000. No Bernal Spheres were lost in war prior to the 2nd Interplanetary War period of the 2190s. Many were lost in the outer colonies where newly build industrial stations orbited worlds that were in contention during that bloody conflict.

            The Bernal Sphere does not have any weapons. It relies on ships, and fighters as its only defensive systems.
These stations are permanent and require other craft to move them to different locations. Normally they are constructed in the place that they are intended to permanently stay.

Where this concept comes from:

www.nss.org/settlement/space/b…