Yeah, good point. Align the spin axis perpendicular to both star and orbital directions, and they'll be fine other than small effects as you say. You would probably want to check in on them at least every few years to make sure the axis is still aligned reasonably well, and to spot any random problems that have occurred -- e.g., loss of pressure from a component failure or hull puncture.

On Wed, Nov 1, 2017 at 4:49 PM, Kelly St. Clair <xxxxxx@efn.org> wrote:

On 11/1/2017 2:26 PM, C. Berry wrote:

You'd probably want to leave the ship slowly rotating, to heat it evenly (time-averaged). You'd want the axis of rotation perpendicular to the incident starlight, which would require active adjustments to maintain over the course of an orbit around the star. I imagine a tug visiting every few months to do this to all the ships in a given boneyard. The tug crews might call it a torque tour.

Can't you just point the axis and/or nose straight "up" or "down"? No adjustment required, assuming a zero-inclination orbit, except for precession or other drift.

Pity the hulls probably wouldn't be close enough for naked-eye observation; spoils the visual of a dozen starships all slowly rotating like kebab rotisseries.

--
---------------
Kelly St. Clair
xxxxxx@efn.org

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