Space station and sci-fi rings
A rotating ring station with spokes and a hub, rings on top of each other, a Stanford torus, a slice of an O'Neill cylinder, a portal ring or a floating halo platform. Choose the sizes, the windows, the lights and the solar panels, and build it layer by layer. Click blocks you have placed to keep track of where you are.
Elevation
Plan
lighter = higherThe dashed lines run through the middle of the station. x and z count from that middle.
Build breakdown
Per layer, from bottom to top
| Layer | Size | What is in it | Blocks |
|---|
Layer 1, row by row
| Row | Start | Pattern | Blocks |
|---|
Build tips
- Build high in the sky or in the End. First put a pole on the centre and mark the major radius R in four directions. Then you know where the tube goes.
- Start with the spokes and the hub. They hold the ring in place while you build it round.
- Build a flat ring layer by layer. A standing ring or portal is easier with scaffolding that you remove afterwards.
- Good hull blocks: Smooth Quartz, White Concrete, Blocks of Iron or Polished Deepslate. For the lights, Sea Lanterns, Glowstone or End Rods work well.
- Daylight Detectors look like solar panels. Tinted Glass or Blue Stained Glass is a good replacement if you want them thicker.
- Make the inside of a hollow tube liveable: a floor on the bottom layer inside, and lights in the ceiling.
3D and layer-by-layer build plan
To Minecraft
Download the design as a schematic file and paste it into your world with WorldEdit, or build it along with a hologram in Litematica. Hull, spokes, hub, ports and pedestal get the block you choose. Windows become Glass, lights Sea Lanterns, solar panels Daylight Detectors, land Grass Blocks and the event horizon Light Blue Stained Glass. With a block palette you choose everything yourself.
Shopping list
Put the amounts of this design on your list. There you see everything together, converted into stacks and shulker boxes.
How it is calculated
History and fun facts
Gravity by spinning
In space you float, and over time that is bad for your muscles and bones. Around 1900, the Russian teacher Konstantin Tsiolkovsky came up with the idea of a spinning station. If you stand in the ring, you are pressed against the outer wall. That feels like gravity.
The bigger the ring, the slower it needs to turn. That is why ring stations in books and films are often very large.
The space wheel
In 1952, Wernher von Braun drew a wheel-shaped space station for Collier's magazine. It had a ring, spokes and a hub in the middle, where ships could dock.
That image became famous through the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey. In it, a large white wheel station turns slowly to music by Strauss. The classic space wheel in this tool has the same layout.
Stanford torus and O'Neill cylinder
In 1975, NASA and Stanford University studied how to build a space colony for 10,000 people. The result was the Stanford torus: a thick ring almost two kilometres across, with a large mirror that reflects sunlight inside.
The physicist Gerard K. O'Neill went even further. In his book The High Frontier (1976) he described huge spinning cylinders with land, water and air on the inside. In the tool you build a slice of such a cylinder, with grass on the floor.
Real space stations
Real stations do not spin. They are built from separate modules joined together. The Soviet Union built Mir (1986), and since 1998 the International Space Station (ISS) has been built in orbit around the Earth. People have lived on board without a break since November 2000.
Large solar panels supply the power. In Minecraft, daylight detectors look a lot like them.
Rings in science fiction
Rings appear in many forms in science fiction. The game Halo is about a giant ring world. In Stargate, a ring with chevrons is a gate to other planets. And in films such as Interstellar and Elysium, people live in large spinning stations.
This tool brings these ideas together: a ring station, stacked rings, a Stanford torus, an O'Neill cylinder, a portal ring and a floating halo platform.
Did you know?
- The ISS circles the Earth about once every 90 minutes. The crew sees about 16 sunrises a day.
- The ISS is about the size of a football field.
- Wernher von Braun drew his wheel station in 1952 for Collier's magazine.
- Gerard K. O'Neill wrote The High Frontier in 1976.
- The first space station was the Soviet Salyut 1, launched in 1971.
About this tool
With this Minecraft space station generator you build sci-fi rings and stations, layer by layer. Choose a spinning ring station with spokes and a hub, stacked rings, a Stanford torus, a slice of an O'Neill cylinder, a portal ring or a floating halo platform.
You set the main radius, the width and height of the tube, and whether its cross-section is rectangular or round. The tube can be hollow, so you can live inside it, or solid. Then you choose the number of spokes, their thickness, the hub and the docking ports. For a portal you choose 7 or 9 chevrons and an open or glass event horizon. You add windows (a continuous band, portholes, two rows or a glass roof), lights, and 2, 4 or 6 arms with solar panels. The station can lie flat or stand upright.
Pick an example such as the classic space wheel, a trading post with eight spokes, the Stanford torus with a mirror, an O'Neill cylinder, a star gate or a halo ring. The layer plan shows every block. You can view the station in 3D, from the front, from the side, as a cross-section and from above. Click placed blocks to keep track of your progress.
The tool counts all blocks, windows and lights, and converts them into stacks. With the block palette you choose your own blocks, and you paste the .schem download into your world with WorldEdit or Litematica. That way you build a space station in Minecraft high in the sky or in the End.
Frequently asked questions
How do I build a space station in Minecraft?
Build high in the sky or in the End. First place a pole at the centre and mark the main radius in four directions. Then you know where the tube goes. Start with the hub and the spokes; they hold the ring in place while you build it around.
Should I build it flat or upright?
You build a flat ring layer by layer, just like a normal floor. An upright ring or portal is harder, because the top hangs in the air. Build a scaffold that you remove afterwards.
Which blocks look like a space station?
Smooth quartz, white concrete, iron blocks or polished deepslate make good hull blocks. For lights, sea lanterns, glowstone or end rods work well. Daylight detectors look like solar panels. In the download, windows become glass, lights become sea lanterns and solar panels become daylight detectors.
Can I live inside the ring?
Yes, choose a hollow tube that is tall enough (at least 3 blocks inside). Put a floor on the bottom layer inside and hang lights in the ceiling. With portholes or a glass roof you can look outside.
How many blocks do I need?
The top shows the total, in stacks, with the footprint, the number of layers and the number of windows and lights. A large ring can easily take thousands of blocks. Make the tube hollow and the radius smaller if you want to save blocks.
Does it work in Bedrock?
The layer plan works in every edition. The .schem file is for Java Edition with WorldEdit or Litematica. Want a ship to go with it? Go to Spaceships.