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The members of the Futuricity team decided that it would be important to research into current architectural abilities and how these techniques may be used in the future. Mark decided he would be best suited to carrying out the research for this part of the project.
Futuristic Buildings
Image courtesy of the Discovery Channel
The technology required to build the city of tomorrow may well be with us today. Although the technology required to live somewhere as inhospitable as the moon may still be a way off, scientists are looking a little closer to home, to our skys. As with tower blocks in the 1970’s it seems the answers to overcrowding could be cities suspended high above the earth, with all the facets of normal living located either above or below you.
There are already plans for such a city, to be located in Tokyo, Japan. The city stands on three pillars which are also used to house the apartments. Joined at the top and the bottom the vast, flat expanses would provide space for a stadium, airport or public areas like a park. A monorail would provide transport around the giant structure. During rush hour it is predicted that as many as 100,000 people would need to move around the complex. The monorail would spiral around the perimeter of each of the pillars allowing people to travel quickly and conveniently to their destination. Once commuters arrived at the pillar they required they could move up or down on the high-speed triple-decker elevators. The carriage is capable of travelling the full length of the building, some 3,300 feet in little under two minutes.
The city would be able to house approximately 35,000 people in apartments mounted inside the legs of the giant free-standing structure. As the building will be constructed from the group up residents would be able to move in as soon as their apartment block was completed, there would be no need to wait for the entire complex to be finished.
Image courtesy of the Discovery Channel
Another possibly solution to our lack of space in some cities is to build in the water adjacent to so many cities around the world. This would result in the obvious arguments about defacing the landscape but the technology is there to make it possible. In the image above the ‘pyramid’ sits on struts that suspend it just above the water level. These can be raised or lowered if the water in which the structure is built is tidal.
The whole system would be constructed on a series of hollow, interconnecting tunnels through which personal transport pods could be driven. There would be points throughout the city, called nodes, that would allow these pods to change direction and for their passengers to alight. The pods themselves would be entirely computer driven with the passenger simply entering their required destination before departure.
Power for the city would be provided by giant ‘Megatrusses’ situated throughout it. These devices would effectively be large movable joints, they could be designed to harness the current of the water in which the city sits and to turn that movement into electricity, thus powering the city.
Inside the cities structure it would be possible to build skyscrapers that are attached to the skeleton at both the top and bottom, this would give the buildings incredible structural strength. The idea for this kind of building method was actually suggested during the 1980’s when architects needed a way of designing large buildings in close proximity. It was suggests that they should all be connected via large beams to give them incredible strength.
Of course not all of this super-structure could be built by humans. Such an adventurous architectural project would need to be completed by robots. They would build the pyramid from the bottom up, able to reach places that it would be too dangerous for humans to attempt. Once the structure was complete they would remain in place to carry about any required maintenance, which they could do twenty four hours a day.
Problems of living in space
The structures that have been mentioned so far are simply suggestions of what science may enable us to produce in a relatively close future. The unanswered question is whether or not it would be possible for humans to live on the moon, or even further a field. Could life be sustained on Mars? The problem with any kind of space travel, or indeed living in space for a prolonged period of time is the increased radiation to which the individuals are exposed. Even astronauts on the relatively short Apollo missions reported seeing solar flares in their retina and later on many of those astronauts have developed cataracts.
The problem is that scientists don’t know exactly how much radiation there is in space and also how much the human body can handle. The key to being able to explore these far off planets is being able to develop the technology to shield us from that radiation. NASA believes that plastic may be the answer. Polyethylene, the same material used to make household rubbish bags, can absorb 20% more radiation than aluminium, the standard material used to make space craft. It is also much lighter allowing craft to travel faster and further on the same amount of fuel. There are also some scientists who believe that it is the fuel itself which may be the answer. Liquid hydrogen absorbs two and a half times better than polyethylene – could we see astronauts of the future living in quarters that are surrounded by the fuel that is powering them?
Even when the problem of radiation is solved there are other issues which still present a challenge to humans. The primary concern of scientists is how we will recycle the naturally occurring substances found on earth but not on other planets. Water is a primary example of a resource on which we rely but is not found anywhere other than earth.
Astronauts on the International Space Station are able to recycle the water that they use, right down to the condensation from their breath. In many cases the quality of the water that is produced from this recycling process is better than that which most people drink on earth. However in a city sized environment such recycling would be difficult and would require a massive amount of power. It is likely that if a community was created on a planet other than earth then regular deliveries of water would be required, accompanied by recycling of the water already on the planet.
Despite these problems scientists from the European Space Agency believe that we could see ‘moon colonies’ within twenty years. "We believe that technologically it's possible," the project scientist on Europe's first Moon mission, Smart-1, told BBC News Online. "But it will depend in the end on the political will to go and establish a human base for preparing for colonisation of the Moon or to be used as a refuge for the human species."
The unmanned Smart-1 craft, which is due to be launched in early September, is flying to the Moon to demonstrate that Europe has the technology for future deep space science missions.
Its main form of propulsion is an ion engine powered by solar-electrical means rather than conventional chemical fuel.
"The Moon could be used as a test bed for future human missions," says Sarah Dunkin, a leading British scientist on the Smart-1 project. "To actually live on another world would be quite a test of technology as well as human physiology. We don't know what the long-term effects of living in a low gravity environment would be."
Can we get there?
So with all the problems associated with living on a planet other than Earth would anyone really want to? The Artemis Project believes so. In a project expected to cost US$1.41 billion they plan to create a base on the moon which anyone can visit. The project believes that it can make US$5 billion from what they term the ‘entertainment’ value of the moon. They also foresee other revenue streams including box office receipts from the film that will be made about their challenge to get to the moon.
Although the Artemis project is an obvious pipe dream it proves that there are people who have a desire to travel to the moon, and people who will want to live there, if only for the money that can be made from it. Human endeavour is only limited by the technology that we currently have, and that is improving all the time. It is undoubtedly the case that once is becomes feasible people will want to at least travel to other planets, if not live on them for any length of time. The recent explosion in the number of so called ‘space tourists’ goes to prove that if you have the drive and the capital then almost nothing is impossible.