A group of scientists from Finland has announced that they believe a human habitat could be created that orbits the Ceres asteroid which lies between Mars and Jupiter. Their project suggests a giant mega-satellite could be built, upon which potentially thousands of people could live.
The claims were made in a paper uploaded to prewrite repository arXiv.
The scientists think that Ceres would be a perfect object to orbit as it has nitrogen upon it, which could be used to create a breathable atmosphere within the mega-satellite. But this would not be like a normal satellite. The scientists claim that a series of smaller satellites spinning round the main satellite could result in gravity being created onboard which would make the satellite feel just like Earth.
The authors say in the paper:
"We choose Ceres as the source body from which the building materials are mined. The primary reason is that Ceres has nitrogen, which is necessary for the settlement's atmosphere. Alternatively, one might consider a carbonaceous asteroid, but those C-type asteroids that have at least 100 km size and that have reasonably low eccentricities are about equally far from Earth than Ceres."
Adding that creating gravity similar to Earth would be the best solution:
"When first encountered, weightlessness causes nausea and vomiting for some people. However, in a settlement where people experience occasional weightlessness from childhood, it is plausible to think that they can tolerate it well during short trips. The motivation is to have a settlement with artificial gravity that allows growth beyond Earth's living area, while also providing easy intra-settlement travel for the inhabitants and reasonably low population density of 500/km2."
Readers and sci-fi fans have pointed out that the project sounds very similar to the sci-fi novel and television series 'The Expanse', in which a whole civilisation lives in deep space using an asteroid as a source of fuel and as a source of gravity.
[Based on reporting by: Futurism]
COMMENTS