In what they deem a “wildly theoretical” paper, University of Rochester researchers imagine covering an asteroid in a flexible, mesh bag made of ultralight and high-strength carbon nanofibers as the key to creating human cities in space.
University of Rochester scientists show how asteroids could be future viable space habitats using physics and engineering principles.
During this past year, Jeff Bezos launched himself into space, while Elon Musk funded a space flight for a non-astronaut crew. Space collaborations between government and private entities, including Musk’s SpaceX and Bezos’s Blue Origin, are becoming more common. However, with the recent emergence of the so-called “New Space” movement, aerospace companies are working to develop low-cost access to space for everyone, not only billionaires.
But for a future beyond Earth, humans will require places to accommodate homes, buildings, and other structures for millions of people to live and work.
Thus far, space cities only exist in science fiction. But are space cities feasible in reality? And, if so, how?
According to new research from University of Rochester scientists, our future may lie in asteroids.
In what they deem a “wildly theoretical” paper, the researchers outline a plan for creating large cities on asteroids. Published in the journal Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences, the scientists include Adam Frank, the Helen F. and Fred H. Gowen Professor of Physics and Astronomy, and Peter Miklavčič, a PhD candidate in mechanical engineering and the paper’s first author.
“Our paper lives on the edge of science and science fiction,” Frank says. “We’re taking a science fiction idea that has been very popular recently—in TV shows like Amazon’s The Expanse—and offering a new path for using an asteroid to build a city in space.”
Continue reading… “Wild Research Project Reveals How Future Cities on Asteroids Could Work”
