As world ponders a futurebeyond the confines of Earth ’s atmosphere , a squad of researchers has put onwards a semi - serious architectural plan for make jumbo space metropoles out of disintegrated asteroids . Presenting their findings in a new field of study , the author say that pack advantage of the underlying friability of infinite rock and roll could be cheaper and light than building wholly new structures in orbit .
“ Our newspaper lives on the boundary of scientific discipline and scientific discipline fabrication , ” said discipline author Adam Frank in astatement . “ We ’re take a skill fiction idea that has been very popular late – in TV shows like Amazon’sThe sweep – and offering a new way of life for using an asteroid to progress acity in space . ”
The research worker set out to determine if asteroid could be harness to make go “ O’Neill cylinders ” , a classical blank space habitat aim describe after former NASA physicist Gerard O’Neill . consist of two splay cylinders that produce contrived gravity by moral excellence of their whirl , these habitable structures have appeared in legion sci - fi movies and TV serial publication .
Unfortunately , O’Neill cylinders have yet to make the leap from the screen to realism due to a compounding of technological and fiscal barrier . The cogitation author therefore wondered if some of these hurdles could be overcome by building city on asteroids alternatively .
“ All those flying mountains gyrate around the sunlight might provide a degenerate , tatty , and more good path to quad metropolis , ” says Frank . However , after running a few figuring , the team reason that most prominent asteroid lack the tensile metier to withstand being spin , and would disintegrate long before any hokey gravitational force could be created .
Smaller asteroids , meanwhile , are n’t even deserve of the title ‘ place rock ’ , as they are actually just lunge pile of detritus , loosely held together by weak gravitational force . Not put off by these flaky space ball , the researchers propose to “ take advantage of the detritus composition and to intentionally disintegrate an asteroid with overpowering spin so as to catch it into a larger cylindrical external containment structure . ”
Essentially , their plan necessitate encapsulating an asteroid with an “ accordion - like ” like complex body part made of ultra - tenuous carbon nanofibers , like a giant inflatable bag . Using “ solar - powered rubble cannons , ” the authors say that the rocky textile can be fire outwards , causing the asteroid to spin and kick downstairs aside .
As it is flung outwards , the rubble would cause the container to boom until it arrive at its maximum extent , at which peak it would form a cylindrical form . Rocky material would continue to accumulate along the inside of this piston chamber , providing a open on whichpeople could be .
Importantly , the jolty bed would be compact enough to shield all inhabitants from solar radiation , while the tailspin would create artificial gravity .
“ Based on our computation , a 300 - meter - diameter [ 984 feet ] asteroid just a few football game fields across could be expanded into a cylindrical outer space habitat with about [ 57 substantial kilometers ] 22 straightforward mile of living sphere , ” Frank says . “ That ’s approximately the size of it of Manhattan . ”
“ Obviously , no one will be building asteroid city anytime presently , but the technologies required to attain this kind of engine room do n’t relegate any law of physics , ” he adds . In fact , all of the constituent of the authors ’ asteroid city – including the atomic number 6 nanofiber coating and the engines that would be used to birl the structure – are already being developed .
what is more , the researchers say that their design “ is likely to be less costly and complex in terminal figure of technology than building a classic O’Neill habitat in which all morphological materials must be fabricated and transported to the construction electron orbit . ”
The sketch is published in the journalFrontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences .
