We can build space cities in asteroids like science fiction with this wild concept
The pandemic-induced “lockdown” project has produced a new vision of how cities can be built on asteroids.
The wild asteroid concept would see humans in the distant future gather rocky rubble into a huge sack made of nanofiber mesh, allowing future astronauts to build a habitat inside loose asteroid fragments as the rocks orbit through space.
“This project started as a way for physicists and engineers to destress, avoid mundane pressures for a while, and imagine something crazy,” Ph.D. Peter Miklavcic, candidate and lead author of the study, resident at the University of Rochester, said in a statement (Opens in a new tab).
The researchers suggest that future cities the size of Manhattan measuring 22 square miles (57 square kilometers) could be built on these space rocks, just like in science fiction, assuming the asteroid core is at least 1,000 feet (300 meters) across.
Related: Astrophysicist says humans could move to this floating asteroid belt colony in the next 15 years
“We’re taking a science fiction idea that’s been very popular lately — in TV shows like Amazon’s ‘The Expanse’ — and offering a new path to using an asteroid to build a city in space,” added co-author Adam Frank, who studies physics and astronomy in Rochester, in the same statement.
If their concept does indeed work, the study team argues, it will (eventually) allow exploration of the solar system at lower cost and open up life beyond the planet to a much larger number of billionaires.
However, the launch infrastructure is not yet ready for quick and affordable access to space, let alone any asteroid-shaped city-building materials; It would take at least a few decades, if not centuries, to build them.
The new study is borrowed from “The O’Neill Cylinder.” (Opens in a new tab)The concept first proposed by physicist Gerard O’Neill in 1972 NASA study. Simply put, the design includes two cylinders spinning in opposite directions, inspiring billionaires like Blue Origin Jeff Bezos (who made his fortune from Amazon) or SpaceX‘s Elon Musk. But previous work indicated that it would be too expensive to source the necessary materials from the ground.
Related: With billionaires launching into space, the “right stuff” for space travel is entering a new era
Miklavcic studies the space debris that often appears in asteroids, which in many cases can only be held together loosely by gravity. Since a rotating O’Neill cylinder would make such an asteroid fly away, a flexible bag could be one solution to hold the material and allow a stable base for the city.
The mesh bag will be made of carbon nanofibers, which are lightweight and strong enough to hold together asteroid debris into a potential habitat. In theory, an asteroid wrapped inside a bag would fling its rocks at the sides, allowing the bag to expand and grip the rocks tightly with the help of the nanofibers. The debris that litters the side of the suitcase will be held there by artificial gravity and will protect the inhabitants from space radiation.
While the study is literally “out there,” the researchers emphasized that all of the technology is currently out there (albeit at an early stage) and that the science is standing.
“Obviously no one is going to be building asteroid cities anytime soon, but the technologies required to accomplish this kind of engineering do not break any laws of physics,” Frank said.
A study based on the research was published in January (Opens in a new tab) in Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences, highlighted by the university in December.
Elizabeth Howell is co-author of “Why am I taller (Opens in a new tab)? (ECW Press, 2022; with Canadian astronaut Dave Williams), a book on space medicine. Follow her on Twitter @tweet (Opens in a new tab). Follow us on Twitter @tweet (Opens in a new tab) or Facebook (Opens in a new tab).
#build #space #cities #asteroids #science #fiction #wild #concept