Space Forum / Space Flight / February 2006

 I just finished reading This New Ocean that covers the space age.  I
really wasn't looking forward to the Skylab part but after I read it and
then googled up the pictures of Skylab I was happily surprised.  That Skylab
looked pretty cool.  It looked like a real lab.  It looked big, unlike the
current space station that looks like stupid trash cans hooked together.

   Anyway, everybody has seen old pictures from the past (like the 1950's)
with scientists images of what a space station may look like in the future.
It's the classic space station look - a big wheel spinning slowly around
(creating gravity), something like the space station in 2001 A Space
Odyssey.

My question:  are those classic looking space stations possible?  Would it
be possible with today's technology to build one of these stations that
actually spins around creating gravity?  Would spinning a big pin wheel
shaped space station work?

   What's are the negatives to such a station besides cost?