Posted on 03/28/2017 12:36:32 PM PDT by nickcarraway
An artist's impression of how the proposed asteroid-suspended Analemma Tower would look.
The building will be suspended from an asteroid orbiting 50,000kms from the earth A New York-based firm is proposing that Dubai be the site of a futuristic, asteroid-suspended skyscraper that orbits around the world.
The speculative Analemma Tower - which is being proposed by the Clouds Architecture Office - is designed to be suspended downward on an asteroid orbiting 50,000km from earth. It would orbit in a figure-eight pattern across the northern and southern hemispheres in a 24-hour cycle each day.
A design close-up of the asteroid from which the proposed skyscraper would be suspended using high-strength cables
On its website, the firm notes that "Analemma inverts the traditional diagram of an earth-based foundation, instead depending on a space-based supporting foundation from which the tower is suspended. "This system is referred to as the Universal Orbital Support System (UOSS).
"By placing a large asteroid into orbit over earth, a high-strength cable can be lowered towards the service of earth from which a super tall tower can be suspended," the website noted. "Since this new tower typology is suspended in the air, it can be constructed anywhere in the world and transported to its final location."
The best location to get started, Clouds Architecture noted, is Dubai.
"The proposal calls for Analemma to be constructed over Dubai, which has proven to be a specialist in tall building construction at one-fifth of the cost of New York City construction," the designers said.
World's next tallest tower
The initial design - which Clouds Architecture is billing as "the world's tallest tower" - includes separate parts of the tower dedicated to business; sleeping quarters; devotional activities; a gardening and agricultural centre; "transfer stations" that allow for the transfer of people and goods between the earth's surface and the orbiting structure; and space for dining, shopping and entertainment.
The two highest sections of the tower - starting at between 17,000 and 20,000 metres above earth - are reserved for a reliquary section (which would house religious relics) and a funerary section. The tallest point of the tower above earth is planned for about 32,000 metres above ground.
This is how the Analemma Tower would look from space
To power the building, Analemma's designers plan to instal space-based solar panels, which - "installed above the dense and diffuse atmosphere" - would receive constant sunlight. Water is to be filtered and recycled in a semi-closed loop, and re-filled with condensation captured from rain and clouds.
Once built, the tower's proposed orbit would take it in a figure-eight pattern around the world, "where the tower would move at its slowest speed at the top and bottom of the figure eight, allowing the possibility for the towers occupants to interface with the planet's surface at these points".
Why not mount some sort of thrust engines on the asteroid to allow control and adjustment the orbit?
Well, because this isn’t like a tiny low mass satellite that only requires occasional adjustments to keep its orbit from decaying. This is a high mass satellite with an atmospheric anchor continually dragging it down that would require massive thrusters constantly burning lots of fuel or it would decay past the point of no return very quickly. Where is the fuel going to come from to do that? Just constantly launching rockets from earth to ferry a little bit of fuel per launch up to the asteroid at billions and billions of dollars per launch?
Who will want to pay for that? Who will want to take the risk that if a few launches go wrong the thrusters run out of fuel and life on planet earth possibly goes extinct?
Everyone calm down. Remember, the Arabs were great contributors to math and science. /s
Ultimate Skeet!
And if you buy this I have some scenic Detroit storefronts to sell ya.
>> Is this Arthur c Clarke’s space elevator? <<
No. No asteroid involved in a space elevator, but a super-strong strand is required for the space elevator.
>> The two highest sections of the tower - starting at between 17,000 and 20,000 metres above earth - are reserved for a reliquary section (which would house religious relics) and a funerary section. The tallest point of the tower above earth is planned for about 32,000 metres above ground. <<
15,000 of vertical space for a reliquary?
“Lol they envisioned this futuristic plan, and they can’t have a heliport or something, you have to jump off with a parachute?”
Artistic freedom .... Low density and cold at 50,000+ feet ...
>> Bazinga!! Wonder what effect this would have on the tides. <<
Zero. Very massive by human standards, but it has zero mass from the perspective of planetary mass.
You would have to have a super strong strand for this too. A captured asteroid would also work well for a Clarke elevator. a lot less to put into orbit.
“At least they’re ambitious.”
Exactly. This is just someones paper project, but its the sort of big idea that everyone should be entertaining. Some of them will find a way.
This does not solve the issue of weight. The weight of the building would act as a force to sheer it
A Clarke elevator would be used to transport people and belongings to and from a geosynchronous orbit. The elevator-satellite would have no reason to have any substantial height at all, so no gravitational force acting to tear it apart.
The Clarke elevator isn’t all it’s commonly understood to be. It’s useless for building the satellite in the first place. All it does is allow a very cheap exchange of materials between the satellite and Earth. But you have to put mass up their to be exchanged in the first place.
Thats just a quibble. If you have the tech to drag a 1km or so diameter asteroid into geostationary orbit, then you have the tech to set up reactionless drives (see recent NASA tests of the EM drive) powered by nukes or solar panels.
Actually, I take it back about the Clarke elevator. You could use a giant rail gun to launch ballast into space. Such a rail gun involves accelerations that would obliterate anything useful. But once the ballast is in space, the elevator could exchange the mass of the ballast for more useful materials.
“The Towering Inferno II” & “The Poseidan Adventure II” all
rolled into one. - PASS!
“If you have the tech to drag a 1km or so diameter asteroid into geostationary orbit...”
Well, we don’t.
“see recent NASA tests of the EM drive”
Verrrry preliminary tests, mind you. Ping me when there’s a spacecraft flying around powered by a reactionless drive. Until then it’s vaporware.
“its the sort of big idea that everyone should be entertaining”
No, it’s the sort of stupid idea a first year engineering student should be able to point out the massive flaws in. We’d be much better off focusing on ideas that might actually work.
Yup. Like that fellow Walter Hohmann, figuring out the orbital mechanics of getting spacecraft to the planets (in 1925) when there was no known way to even get into Earth orbit.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Hohmann
Aim high.
Per aspera ad astra
and my personal favorite,
Plus ultra (rough translation - go beyond)
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