Imagine that one morning you wake up in a wonderful mood.
Then you mosey on over to the window, gaze outside,
and... freeze in complete and utter terror!
There is a vast, black emptiness behind the glass... no
trees, no clouds, no nothin’!
You rush to the door, fling it open, and all you can see is a yawning abyss.
No, you are not experiencing a waking nightmare, and the world has not suddenly
evaporated overnight.
You are simply in a skyscraper, and not just any
skyscraper - the coolest skyscraper in the world!
The thing is: this is no ordinary dwelling, but a
domicile flipped upside down, hanging from orbit like an apple from a
tree.
American architects have already developed such a project, and this
proposed architectural masterpiece is called the Analemma Tower.
In astronomy, an Analemma is a diagrammatical curve that shows the
position of the Sun in the sky, from one location on Earth, at the same
time of day throughout the year.
A diagram like this will always resemble a figure 8.
The designers believe that this name suits the concept of a
flying skyscraper, as it will also travel a similar path through the skies.
Obviously, nobody will have to walk upside down in this thing.
However, in relation to the Earth’s surface, the
building will indeed be upside down.
The trick is that they want to hang this skyscraper from an asteroid that
will be maneuvered into the Earth’s orbit.
At first glance, the idea looks like something from the plot of a science
fiction film.
Can we really harness an asteroid?
Well, in fact, in 2021, NASA is planning to catch a
random asteroid wandering somewhere in space, and
indeed lasso the thing and move it closer to our planet.
The plan is to research this captured space body, and then
hopefully to harvest the thing for its various elements, in particular
its rare and valuable metals.
If the mission is successful, then another cosmic body can be captured
and brought into the Earth’s domain, where it will be maneuvered into
orbit at an altitude of 31 miles and adjusted for the foundation of the
Analemma Tower.
After that, with the help of the Universal Orbital
Support System - which was developed by the project’s architects - the
building can be suspended, or hung.
Heavy-duty cables attached to the asteroid will be something like its “skeleton”.
And all the prefabricated modules will begin to be mounted roughly 20
miles lower.
They are inviting builders to construct the modules
for this architectural masterwork in the USA, and they are also calling
on special construction experts from the United Arab Emirates.
Arab specialists, by the way, are well experienced in skyscraper construction.
They have recently built several towers much faster, and for about
one fifth the cost, than their counterparts from the United States, or much
of the rest of the world, can do.
In order to save money, the developers want to build the
skyscraper over Dubai, where land is about 1/15 th the cost of land in New
York.
The finished modules, or sections, will be transported to the
Emirates, and the building can begin to be hung from the cables
attached to the asteroid.
This giant skyscraper will extend for more than
12 miles from top to bottom, meaning its “roof” or top will be somewhere
in the troposphere, far above the Earth’s surface.
To prevent this remarkable skyscraper from falling on someone’s head,
the creators plan on using super-strong materials and innovative
anchors.
Something like transparent aluminum, which is three times
stronger than steel, will probably be suitable for the job.
And likely nanomaterials will be used as well, as, according
to scientists, they are almost impossible to damage or destroy.
It’s also proposed to build these celestial “brick” modules from concrete,
but not just any old concrete.
This will be a special space-age concrete mixed with the most
durable substance in the world - graphene.
The building also has to have windows.
Interestingly, their size and shape will vary with altitude
and temperature.
So, for example, windows located above the troposphere will need to be very thick.
And due to the curvature of the Earth, the Sun will shine for 40 minutes longer
there than on the floors that are lower down.
Inside, the tower will be divided into sections.
The closest floors to the Earth will contain business centers, shopping
malls and stores, and entertainment sectors.
The middle will be used for residential premises.
And the top, closest to heaven, will be relegated for religious institutions,
as well as having a cemetery.
In the case of a funeral, one will not have to return to the surface of the Earth.
All sectors will have magnificent gardens with lush lawns, glorious flower parks,
and ever-sprouting fruit trees.
Everything is set up so that returning to the surface of our home
planet will become mostly unnecessary.
Residents of the mega-tower will travel more than enough on their own.
In fact, every day the building will fly around the Earth in a figure-eight
trajectory at a speed of up to 300 miles per hour.
The path of the skyscraper will be perfectly calculated so that it goes over many major
cities in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, such as Havana, Atlanta,
Panama City, New York, and others.
During clear weather, residents of these big cities will
be able to watch as this marvel of engineering and construction will soar
across the sky.
In addition, this smart skyscraper will produce all the
fundamental requirements for life on site.
On the upper floors, where there are no clouds, numerous solar panels
will be installed.
They will fully provide all of the necessary energy
for the upside down city in the sky.
And on the lower floors, huge units will condense water from the
clouds, collecting it into tanks.
If something happens on Earth, like volcanoes erupting, bombs exploding, or storms
or hurricanes devastating the land, the inhabitants of the
Analemma Tower will continue living on as if nothing happened.
However, a note of caution: in the Analemma Tower itself, catastrophe could
also occur.
For example, an uncontrolled fire or a serious flood from
rupture pipes in the water supply.
In this case, according to the plan of the designers, people will
be quickly evacuated on specially designed parachutes, or by aircraft,
which will constantly run between the skyscraper and our planet below.
And yet, the Analemma Tower is unlikely to become some kind of
ultimate paradise, like the Elysium space station habitat
from the eponymous American science fiction film.
Here, for example, is a simple question to which the authors of the project did not yet
give an answer: where are they going to put all of the enormous amount
of bio-waste they produce?
You can’t just dump it out on the heads of Earth’s inhabitants below,
though that would be pretty funny.
They will probably be flown or parachuted down to the surface of the planet
below, or out into space above, in special containers.
But however it is done, it will be very expensive.
In addition, up at the top of the structure, people won’t be
able to take even a single step outside without a protective suit, due to
the obvious absence of air at that altitude, and a temperature of -40
degrees Fahrenheit.
It looks like people living in this futuristic mega-
structure they will have to face a kind of total isolation in this huge,
luxurious, and self-sufficient but, nonetheless, confined space.
Although it should be noted, the international space
station has been continuously inhabited for decades, with some astronauts
living there for a combined total of almost 2 years, and they feel just
dandy.
The developers of the Analemma project are confident that they will
find answers to all the various questions posed, and that their creation
will be a resounding success.
The recent boom in skyscrapers has shown that the sale price
of space increases as the floor numbers rise.
It is partly due to this that the designers envision recouping all of their
costs after finishing construction of this mind-blowing tower.
If successful, the Analemma Tower will be the first model of supra-planetary
architectural design, and also will clinch the title as the tallest
building in the world.
The developers of the Analemma Tower have not yet broken ground on
construction, but they have already made plans for a similar project for a
skyscraper outside the confines of our planet.
This one would hang above Venus!
They also plan to suspend it from an asteroid - this time in
the orbit of Venus - at an altitude of 31 miles.
And there is yet another project for Venus of a similar design planned
by project leaders from the USA.
This one is called the Venus Garden Tower.
According to the creators of this orbiting edifice, such a
structure is the only possibly way to colonize the so-called “Morning Star”
Venus, as its surface is a living hell.
The planet is constantly flooded with hot lava from the eruptions of
over six hundred volcanoes, the air is chock full of carbon dioxide and
hydrochloric acid vapor, and the pressure on the surface is
approximately 90 Earth atmospheres.
As well, the temperature reaches 864 degrees Fahrenheit - twice that of your
everyday, friendly kitchen oven.
But if you get to a height of 31 miles above Venus, everything is
completely different.
There it is much more similar to the Earth.
Travelers at that altitude can expect a comfortable
pressure of one Earth atmosphere, and their thermometers will register
a balmy 59 degrees Fahrenheit, or about 15 degrees Celsius.
Not too shabby.
Venus Garden Tower is proposed to be built in the form of a futuristic
spiral tower.
Sections, approximately 32 x 98 feet in size, will be
meticulously constructed here on Earth.
And then each will then be placed in the cargo hold of a proposed interplanetary
spacecraft, transported to Venus, and assembled on site.
Heavy-duty cables made of carbon nanomaterials will serve as the
core or frame of this ambitious construction.
In the center of the structure will be a hollow tube, which
will contain six small elevators, as well as a spiral staircase, connecting
all of the different levels.
Fan-like sections will be attached to the pipe,
each of which will unfold like a jack-knife and spread out once
construction is completed.
Each section of the tower will be able to accommodate approximately 200 people.
The outer skin of the skyscraper will be covered in a transparent
inflatable membrane made of super-strong, high endurance material.
The developers have high hopes for something called Tedlar film in particular,
which can serve for very long periods, under very harsh conditions,
in almost any climate imaginable.
Of course, at the moment these buildings seem less like real residential
spaces, and rather more like chimeras.
However, science is advancing so quickly these days that these amazing buildings
may soon become something like ordinary, everyday skyscrapers.
And the architects of the future are already planning to go even further,
constructing some kind of a new Analemmas and Venus Towers, but these
perhaps allowing their inhabitants to one day travel to other asteroids,
solar systems, galaxies, and beyond.
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