If you get sick and tired of the Earth, you may not need to wait much longer for a trip off the planet. A recent study published by Finnish astrophysicist Pekka Janhunen says it would be possible to place a floating megacete on Ceres, a dwarf planet floating around the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Janhunen not only set out his plan for how a megacete could be built, but suggests that it could begin to take shape in the next decade and a half.
According to the journal entry (via New York Post), Ceres was chosen because of its similar gravitational qualities, even though it lives about 325 miles from Earth. In secular terms, NASA sent the spacecraft daybreak there in 2007 and did not arrive until 2015.
“We select Ceres as the source body because it is more likely that type C asteroids have enough nitrogen,” Janhunen wrote. “Nitrogen is a critical element because it is needed for settlement atmospheres. We use a disk geometry for the megasatellite, because its symmetry eliminates tidal torque, so the reaction wheels are not needed to maintain the attitude. Habitats are illuminated by natural sunlight. “Sunlight is collected on a disk by two flat mirrors inclined at a 45-degree angle and concentrated to the desired intensity by parabolic mirrors.”
Its megacity plan includes a habitat built of thousands of cylindrical structures, each housing more than 50,000 people. These structures will rotate slowly and create artificial gravity on the surface of the satellite.
Using “space elevators” embedded in the habitat, people living in megacities could then exploit metals found in Ceres to build additional structures.
“The utility value of the megasatellite becomes obvious if we compare it with traditional surface settlements. It would be technically possible to colonize the surface of Ceres through centrifugal habitats,” the astrophysicist added. “However, then the magnetic bearings should support the weight of the habitat. The weight is 34 times smaller than on Earth, but many orders of magnitude more than in the microgravity conditions of the megasatellite.”
Cover photo by Xue Bing / VCG by Getty Images