Banks has described them as looking like "a god's bracelet" hanging in space. Orbitals are ribbon-like hoops of superstrong material (see also unobtainium) reinforced and joined with forcefields. On the inside of the hoop, there can be any type of planetary environment, from desert to ocean to jungle to glacier. At the edges are high walls to keep the atmosphere in and protect the inhabitants from radiation, typically tens or hundreds of kilometres high. Orbitals spin to mimic the effects of gravity, and are sized so that the rate of rotation necessary to produce a comfortable gravity level is approximately equal to one day. In the case of the standard Culture day and gravity, this diameter is around fourteen million kilometres. By tilting the axis of the Orbital relative to its orbit around a star, a convenient day-night cycle can be experienced by the inhabitants.
Each Orbital is governed/managed by a Mind, which is situated in a structure in space at the centre of the Orbital, known as the Hub. The Mind is generally referred to simply as "Hub" by the inhabitants of the Orbital.
An Orbital is similar to a Ringworld, but is much smaller and does not enclose its primary star within itself, instead orbiting the star in a more conventional manner.
It should also be noted that the very popular game Halo: Combat Evolved by Bungie Studios is set on a structure similar to an Orbital, only much smaller, only ten thousand kilometres across.
The Culture is a fictional anarchic, socialistic and utopian society created by the Scottish writer Iain M. Banks and described by him in several of his novels and shorter fictions.
An analysis of the Culture on the Kardashev scale places it approximately at a level 3 civilization, meaning it is able to harness all the energy of its galaxy.
Orbitals feature prominently in both Consider Phlebas and Look to Windward - in the former because an Orbital named Vavatch is to be destroyed by the Culture GSV ESCHATOLOGIST as a tactical move in the war, and in the latter, Masaq' Orbital is the main setting for the novel.
Orbitals spin to mimic the effects of gravity, and are sized so that the rate of rotation necessary to produce a comfortable gravity level is approximately equal to one day.
The Culture'sOrbitals are each governed/managed by a Mind, which is situated in a structure in space at the centre of the Orbital, known as the Hub.
An Orbital is similar to a Ringworld, but is much smaller and does not enclose its primary star within itself, instead orbiting the star in a more conventional manner.
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