Marketing, media and public outreach

How rotating-station concepts reach the public: renders, videos, fiction, press releases, and the gap between marketing and engineering.

Key results

Marketing vs engineering

• Company marketing is often ahead of engineering.
• Gateway Foundation / Orbital Assembly: Paul451 found it was one person plus volunteer 3D modellers, and its claims unfounded Paul451, 2022-10-28.
• Coastal Ron: the truss and module suspension look too weak, and 40 Dream Chaser lifeboats are questionable Coastal Ron, 2019-02-19.
• Their website lacks documents referenced in the video Paul451, 2019-09-02. The Orbital Assembly Reg CF equity offering JohnFornaro, 2022-12-14.
• The Gateway Foundation's earlier plan was funding via lottery tickets and multi-level marketing Eer, 2016-01-22.
• Vast's marketing. Vast's interior illustration is inconsistent with its exterior (no paired windows, straight lines) JohnFornaro, 2022-10-30. Its roadmap "wheel station" image was hidden but remained in the page source LMT, 2024-08-02.
• Gravitics uses AG station concepts in its marketing LMT, 2024-08-06.
• "A baton with a great marketing department": Twark_Main on Minovitch's torus, whose volume is mostly in the central columns Twark_Main, 2022-12-17.
• Press cycles. Trickling information yields more publicity rounds high road, 2019-09-03. mikelepage: the press shows the use case for reusable heavy lift mikelepage, 2019-09-03.
• Station as attraction: like the Eiffel Tower lamontagne, 2023-01-09.
• Tourism marketing is a separate role in the concession model Coastal Ron, 2023-01-09.

Visuals produced in the thread

• lamontagne made SketchUp + Twilight Render models, shared on Google Drive and 3D Warehouse lamontagne, 2015-08-29. His renders include:
• Kalpana-type settlements lamontagne, 2023-01-09.
• The Mars-orbit shipyard lamontagne, 2022-12-29.
• The BIS Avalon lamontagne, 2023-09-28.
• Park walks and a worldship lamontagne, 2024-03-02.
• A 3 rpm can station with rotating airlock video lamontagne, 2023-01-23.
• Earth-view videos at 1 and 3 rpm lamontagne, 2023-01-25.
• The rotating-airlock video lamontagne, 2023-02-03.
• mikelepage: Exodus DeTA animation mikelepage, 2018-11-01; sleeping-pod video mikelepage, 2019-04-05; YouTube series "Settling the incliptic" mikelepage, 2014-03-14.
• Others:
• WH2OPaddler's tail-to-tail Starships render WH2OPaddler, 2019-04-30.
• Darren_Hensley's GWS render (3DS Max) Darren_Hensley, 2015-09-04.
• JohnFornaro's SSPO animation JohnFornaro, 2023-10-10.
• Refleks's 1:200 Fusion 360 model Refleks, 2019-01-07.
• External: a Stanford Torus rendering lamontagne, 2022-10-06; Mark renders (SpaceBoffin) Tywin, 2024-03-09; Erik Wernquist's "One Revolution Per Minute" LMT, 2023-10-01.
• 2001 imagery. The 2001 docking-bay images were fan-made; the production painting is at planet3earth.co.uk lamontagne, 2023-01-18.

Fiction, podcasts and books

• mikelepage's novel excerpt "The Hilda Pact" mikelepage, 2014-03-22. The web comic "The Meridian Way" lamontagne, 2022-10-19.
• The Martian's Hermes ring (~0.1 g at the estimated size, shown as 1 g) mikelepage, 2015-10-05. The film "The Space Between Us" LarryCanuck, 2023-03-03.
• The Off-Nominal podcast ep. 81 and "Why Am I Taller?" (Williams & Howell 2022) mikelepage, 2022-10-21. Off-Nominal suggested funnelling ISS long-duration money into AG research Surfdaddy, 2022-10-28.
• The Brandeis rotating-room video Coastal Ron, 2019-04-04.
• Rotating stations are an underused setting for resource and farming games (Silent Running-like) Paul451, 2026-09-16. Game designer Stephen Seachord's concept LMT, 2024-08-10.

Messaging lessons

• Use accurate g values: "Mars g = 38%, not 1/3" mikelepage, 2018-08-01.
• Avoid misleading metaphors (aircraft, trucks) Paul451, 2025-09-09.
• Earth-copying is naive; the Biosphere 2 lesson is "don't cargo-cult Earth" Robotbeat, 2023-03-06.

Open questions

• How can the public (and investors) tell engineering-backed concepts from marketing renders?
• Which visuals most help understanding: renders, walk-through VR, or physics simulators?

Related pages

• Virtual reality and visualization · Tourism · Industry concepts

Sources

Forum posts

• mikelepage, 2014-03-14 (reply #151, 1 like): YouTube series. Post.
• mikelepage, 2014-03-22 (reply #244, 1 like): Hilda Pact. Post.
• lamontagne, 2015-08-29 (reply #569, 2 likes): SketchUp models. Post. Attachments: big stack.png, smallstationrender.png, smallstation.png, Station and ghost.png, station3.png.
• Darren_Hensley, 2015-09-04 (reply #613): GWS render. Post. Attachments: Station_Bot_Aft_Pers.png, Station_Bot.png.
• mikelepage, 2015-10-05 (reply #671): Hermes ring. Post.
• Eer, 2016-01-22 (reply #836): Lottery tickets + MLM. Post.
• mikelepage, 2018-08-01 (reply #1096): Mars g 38%. Post.
• mikelepage, 2018-11-01 (reply #1248): DeTA video. Post.
• Refleks, 2019-01-07 (reply #1260): Fusion 360 model. Post.
• Coastal Ron, 2019-02-19 (reply #1306): Von Braun Station critique. Post.
• Coastal Ron, 2019-04-04 (reply #1469, 6 likes): Brandeis video (6 likes). Post.
• mikelepage, 2019-04-05 (reply #1470): Pod video. Post. Attachments: SSrotatingcabins2.mp4.
• WH2OPaddler, 2019-04-30 (reply #1565, 3 likes): Starship pair render (3 likes). Post. Attachments: IMG_0001 (4).jpg.
• Paul451, 2019-09-02 (reply #1659): Website lacks documents. Post.
• high road, 2019-09-03 (reply #1661): Trickling information. Post.
• mikelepage, 2019-09-03 (reply #1662): Press shows use case (3 likes). Post.
• lamontagne, 2022-10-06 (reply #1879, 2 likes): Stanford Torus render. Post. Attachments: torus.PNG.
• lamontagne, 2022-10-19 (reply #2142, 2 likes): Meridian Way. Post.
• mikelepage, 2022-10-21 (reply #2163, 1 like): Off-Nominal; book. Post.
• Surfdaddy, 2022-10-28 (reply #2247, 1 like): Off-Nominal AG suggestion. Post.
• Paul451, 2022-10-28 (reply #2249): Gateway Foundation claims unfounded. Post.
• JohnFornaro, 2022-10-30 (reply #2265): Vast illustration inconsistent. Post. Attachments: Vast-Seating.jpg.
• JohnFornaro, 2022-12-14 (reply #2648, 1 like): Reg CF offering. Post. Attachments: RS-by-Orbital-Assembly-12-14-22.jpg.
• Twark_Main, 2022-12-17 (reply #2660): Baton with marketing department. Post. Attachments: torus_volume_to_area_vs_barbell_by_radius_fraction.jpg.
• lamontagne, 2022-12-29 (reply #2723, 3 likes): Mars-orbit shipyard render (3 likes). Post. Attachments: Image6_000.png, Image7.png.
• lamontagne, 2023-01-09 (reply #2830, 3 likes): Kalpana renders (3 likes). Post. Attachments: Image16.png, Image15.png, Image17.png, Image12.png, cut2.png.
• Coastal Ron, 2023-01-09 (reply #2833): Separate tourism marketer. Post.
• lamontagne, 2023-01-09 (reply #2838): Station as attraction. Post.
• lamontagne, 2023-01-18 (reply #2976, 1 like): 2001 images fan-made. Post. Attachments: dock 4.jpg.
• lamontagne, 2023-01-23 (reply #3030, 1 like): Can station video (1 like). Post.
• lamontagne, 2023-01-25 (reply #3082, 3 likes): View videos (3 likes). Post.
• lamontagne, 2023-02-03 (reply #3218, 3 likes): Rotating airlock video (3 likes). Post.
• LarryCanuck, 2023-03-03 (reply #3465): Space Between Us. Post.
• Robotbeat, 2023-03-06 (reply #3511): Don't cargo-cult Earth. Post.
• lamontagne, 2023-09-28 (reply #4033, 3 likes): Avalon renders (3 likes). Post. Attachments: Image122_002.png, Image123_003.png.
• LMT, 2023-10-01 (reply #4092): One Revolution Per Minute. Post. Attachments: wernquist 1rpm pool.jpg.
• JohnFornaro, 2023-10-10 (reply #4149): SSPO animation. Post. Attachments: Ring-SSP0-Animation-10-10-23.mp4.
• lamontagne, 2024-03-02 (reply #4528, 2 likes): Renders (2 likes). Post. Attachments: Image42_001.png.
• Tywin, 2024-03-09 (reply #4538): SpaceBoffin. Post.
• LMT, 2024-08-02 (reply #4689): Vast wheel image. Post. Attachments: vast space - wheel station.jpg, Queijo et al. 1988 Fig2.0-1.png.
• LMT, 2024-08-06 (reply #4717): Gravitics marketing. Post.
• LMT, 2024-08-10 (reply #4737): Seachord concept. Post. Attachments: Wire_Dis001.jpg.
• Paul451, 2025-09-09 (reply #4945): Misleading metaphors. Post.
• Paul451, 2026-09-16 (reply #5116, 1 like): Games setting (1 like). Post.