The Stanford torus was proposed during the 1975 NASA Summer Study,4 conducted at Stanford University, with the purpose of exploring and speculating on designs for future space colonies, with the conclusions and the detailed proposal being published in 1977 in Space Settlements: A Design Study book, by Richard D. Johnson and Charles H. Holbrow5 (Gerard O'Neill later proposed his Island One or Bernal sphere as an alternative to the torus6). "Stanford torus" refers only to this particular version of the design, as the concept of a ring-shaped rotating space station was previously proposed by Konstantin Tsiolkovsky ("Bublik-City", 1903),7 Herman Potočnik (1923)8 or Wernher von Braun (1952),9 among others.
Stanford torus (the proposed 10,000 people habitat described in the 1975 Summer Study, to be distinguished from other rotating wheel space station designs) consists of a torus, or doughnut-shaped ring, that is 1.8 km in diameter and rotates once per minute to provide between 0.9 g and 1.0 g of artificial gravity on the inside of the outer ring via centrifugal force.10
Sunlight is provided to the interior of the torus by a system of mirrors, including a large non-rotating primary solar mirror.
The ring is connected to a hub via a number of "spokes", which serve as conduits for people and materials travelling to and from the hub. Since the hub is at the rotational axis of the station, it experiences the least artificial gravity and is the easiest location for spacecraft to dock. Zero-gravity industry is performed in a non-rotating module attached to the hub's axis.11
The interior space of the torus itself is used as living space, and is large enough that a "natural" environment can be simulated; the torus appears similar to a long, narrow, straight glacial valley whose ends curve upward and eventually meet overhead to form a complete circle. The population density is similar to a dense suburb, with part of the ring dedicated to agriculture and part to housing.12
The 1975 NASA Summer Study evaluated several options for the space habitat design, including spherical and cylindrical shapes, in addition to the toroidal one. The torus was chosen as the best option, among other reasons, because it minimized the amount of mass required to have the same area and radius of rotation.13
The circumference of the torus proper (about 5,600 m in all) would be divided into 6 sections of equal length. 3 of the sections would be used for agriculture, and the remaining 3 for residential uses. Agricultural and residential sections would alternate. A central plain would run through the full length of the torus. To gain space, structures would be terraced over the curved walls of the torus, while many commercial facilities (such as large shops, light industry or mechanical facilities) would be below the level of the central plain. According to the figures included in the study, the plain's floor would be about 1/4 of tube's diameter over the torus bottom, and each spoke would connect at the center of one of the 6 sections.16
The torus would require nearly 10 million tons of mass. Construction would use materials extracted from the Moon and sent to space using a mass accelerator. A mass catcher at L2 would collect the materials, transporting them to L5 where they could be processed in an industrial facility to construct the torus. Only materials that could not be obtained from the Moon would have to be imported from Earth. Asteroid mining is an alternative source of materials.22
In 2012 paper World Ships - Architectures & Feasibility Revisited, a generation ship (also called world ship) based on Stanford torus was proposed. Stanford torus was chosen over O'Neill colony designs because of its detailed design, that covers in depth aspects such as life support systems and wall thickness.
Four Stanford torus colonies would be stacked together, each with a population of 25,000 (bigger than the population of 10,000 for the original Stanford torus, while keeping the original general design and dimensions, and almost the same mass, that is increased by only 10% to 11 million tones), for a total population of 100,000, that is the minimum population size that the paper considers for a world ship.
For propulsion system, the one designed in Project Daedalus was chosen, to be used in combination with the Stanford torus, being attached to the center of the torus. Daedalus would provide other additional features, such as power generation and a dust shield to protect the Stanford Torus from interstellar dust impacts.23
"Stanford Torus Space Settlement - NSS". 2017-08-03. Retrieved 2025-04-08. https://nss.org/stanford-torus-space-settlement/ ↩
Johnson & Holbrow 1977, p. 1, "The Overall System", p. 60, Summary - Johnson, Richard D.; Holbrow, Charles (1977). "Space Settlements: A Design Study". National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Archived from the original on 2009-12-14. https://web.archive.org/web/20091214010802/http://settlement.arc.nasa.gov/75SummerStudy/Table_of_Contents1.html ↩
Johnson, Richard D.; Holbrow, Charles (1977). "Space Settlements: A Design Study". National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Archived from the original on 2009-12-14. https://web.archive.org/web/20091214010802/http://settlement.arc.nasa.gov/75SummerStudy/Table_of_Contents1.html ↩
Johnson & Holbrow 1977, pg VII, "Preface" - Johnson, Richard D.; Holbrow, Charles (1977). "Space Settlements: A Design Study". National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Archived from the original on 2009-12-14. https://web.archive.org/web/20091214010802/http://settlement.arc.nasa.gov/75SummerStudy/Table_of_Contents1.html ↩
O'Neill, Gerard K. (1977). The High Frontier: Human Colonies in Space. Bantam Books. p. 149. /wiki/Gerard_K._O%27Neill ↩
Bekey, Ivan; Herman, Daniel (January 1, 1985). "Space Station and Space Platform Concepts: A Historical Review". Space Stations and Space Platforms-Concepts, Design, Infrastructure, and Uses. American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. pp. 203–263. doi:10.2514/5.9781600865749.0203.0263. ISBN 978-0-930403-01-0. 978-0-930403-01-0 ↩
Noordung (pseudonym), Hermann (1993) [1929]. Das Problem der Befahrung des Weltraums: der Raketen-Motor (PDF) (in German). Berlin: Richard Carl Schmidt & Co. pp. 136–144. ISBN 3851320603. 3851320603 ↩
von Braun, W. (March 22, 1952). Crossing the Final Frontier. Colliers. /wiki/Wernher_von_Braun ↩
Johnson & Holbrow 1977, p. 46 - Johnson, Richard D.; Holbrow, Charles (1977). "Space Settlements: A Design Study". National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Archived from the original on 2009-12-14. https://web.archive.org/web/20091214010802/http://settlement.arc.nasa.gov/75SummerStudy/Table_of_Contents1.html ↩
Johnson & Holbrow 1977, Chap. 5 - Johnson, Richard D.; Holbrow, Charles (1977). "Space Settlements: A Design Study". National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Archived from the original on 2009-12-14. https://web.archive.org/web/20091214010802/http://settlement.arc.nasa.gov/75SummerStudy/Table_of_Contents1.html ↩
The total usable area does not always exactly match with the product of the used land area multiplied by the number of levels. ↩
Johnson & Holbrow 1977, p. 201 - Johnson, Richard D.; Holbrow, Charles (1977). "Space Settlements: A Design Study". National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Archived from the original on 2009-12-14. https://web.archive.org/web/20091214010802/http://settlement.arc.nasa.gov/75SummerStudy/Table_of_Contents1.html ↩
Hein, Andreas M.; Pak, Mikhail; Pütz, Daniel; Bühler, Christian; Reiss, Philipp (2012). "World ships—architectures & feasibility revisited". Journal of the British Interplanetary Society. 65 (4): 119. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/236177990 ↩