ABishop Ring^[1] is a type of hypotheticalrotating wheel space station originally proposed in 1997 byForrest Bishop of the Institute of Atomic-Scale Engineering.^[2] The concept is a smaller scale version of theBanksOrbital, which itself is a smaller version of theNiven ring.^[3] Like other space habitat designs, the Bishop Ring would spin to produceartificial gravity by way ofcentrifugal force. The design differs fromthe classical designs produced in the 1970s byGerard K. O'Neill andNASA in that it would usecarbon nanotubes instead of steel, allowing the habitat to be built much larger. In the original proposal, the habitat would be approximately 1,000 km (620 mi) in radius and 500 km (310 mi) in width, containing 3 million square kilometers (1.2 million square miles) of living space,^[2] comparable to the area ofArgentina orIndia.

Because of its enormous scale, the Bishop Ring would not need to be enclosed like theStanford torus: it could be built without a "roof",^[1] with the atmosphere retained by artificial gravity and atmosphere retention walls some 200 km (120 mi) in height. The habitat would be oriented with its axis of rotation perpendicular to the plane of itsorbit, with either an arrangement ofmirrors to reflect sunlight onto the inner rim or an artificial light source in the middle, powered by a combination of solar panels on the outer rim and solar power satellites.^[2]

Also unlike the 1970s NASA proposals, where habitats would be placed incislunar space or the Earth–MoonL₄/L₅ Lagrangian points, Forrest Bishop considered other possible positions, including the much more distant Sun–Earth L₄/L₅Lagrangian points, positions closer to the Sun, and positions in the asteroid belt or beyond.^[2]

• Bishop Rings are a common type of habitat in the fictional universe of theOrion's Armworldbuilding project;^[4] their radius varies from as little as 100 km to as much as 1000 km (62–620 mi).
• Theeponymous Halo ring installations of theHalo video game series are essentially Bishop Rings with slightly divergent proportions.
• Orbitals in Iain M. Banks'The Culture novels are a similar concept but much bigger and thus would require much stronger materials.
• TheEchoes of the Eye expansion of the video gameOuter Wilds is primarily set on this type of habitat.
• The torus of the filmElysium is open-'topped', allowing space-capable vessels to freely travel into the atmosphere and living space within.

• "Bishop Ring" in theEncyclopedia Galactica at Orion's Arm
• Worldring

• Carbon nanotubes
• Megastructures
• Space habitats

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