We could build space cities on asteroids with this wild concept
A pandemic-induced “lockdown” project produced a new take on how to build cities out of asteroids.
the wild asteroid The concept could see far-future humans gather rock debris into a massive bag made of nanofiber mesh, allowing future astronauts to build a habitat inside the loose asteroid chunks as the rocks spin in space.
“This project started out as just a way for physicists and engineers to detach, put aside mundane stresses for a while, and imagine something crazy,” said Ph. candidate and lead study author Peter Miklavčič, who is based at the University of Rochester, said in a statement (opens in a new tab).
The researchers suggest that future cities the size of Manhattan 22 square miles (57 square kilometers) could be built on these space rocks, just like in science fiction, assuming the base asteroid is at least 1,000 feet (300 meters) in diameter
Related: Humans Could Move to This Asteroid Belt Floating Colony in Next 15 Years, Says Astrophysicist
“We’re taking a sci-fi idea that’s been very popular recently, in TV shows like Amazon’s ‘The Expanse,’ and offering a new way to use an asteroid to build a city in space,” he added. co-author Adam Frank. who teaches physics and astronomy in Rochester, in the same release.
The study team argues that if their concept actually works, it would (eventually) enable lower-cost exploration of the solar system and open up life off the planet to many more people than just billionaires.
That said, the launch infrastructure is not yet available for fast and affordable access to space, let alone any material for building asteroid cities; which may take at least a few decades to build, if not centuries.
The new study borrows the oft-cited “O’Neill cylinder (opens in a new tab)Concept, proposed for the first time by physicist Gerard O’Neill in 1972 NASA to study. Simply put, the design features two cylinders that rotate in opposite directions, inspiring billionaires like Blue originJeff Bezos (who made his fortune with Amazon) or SpaceX‘s Elon Musk. But previous work has suggested that supplying the necessary materials from Earth would be quite expensive.
Related: As space billionaires fly, “the right stuff” for space travel enters a new era
Miklavčič studies the space debris that often arises on asteroids, which in many cases can only be held together by gravity. Since a spinning O’Neill cylinder would blow an asteroid apart, a flexible bag could be a solution to hold materials and allow a stable base for a city.
The mesh bag would be made of carbon nanofibers, which are lightweight yet strong enough to hold asteroid debris together in a potential habitat. In theory, an asteroid spun inside a bag would throw its rocks to the sides, allowing the bag to expand and hold the rocks with the help of nanofibers. The debris peppering the side of the bag would hold on to it artificial gravity and would protect the inhabitants from space radiation.
Although the study is literally “out there,” the researchers emphasized that all the technology is currently in place (albeit at an early stage) and the science remains.
“Obviously, no one is going to build asteroid cities anytime soon, but the technologies needed to achieve this kind of engineering don’t break any laws of physics,” Frank said.
A research-based study was published in January (opens in a new tab) in Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences, and highlighted by the university in December.
Elizabeth Howell is the co-author of “Why am I taller? (opens in a new tab)?” (ECW Press, 2022; with Canadian astronaut Dave Williams), a book about space medicine. Follow her on Twitter @howellspace (opens in a new tab). follow us on twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in a new tab) or Facebook (opens in a new tab).
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