As technology advances, we’re always looking for new ways to improve our lives and to create
better living spaces.
But could we be about to leave even the land beneath our feet behind?
What needs to happen for humans to take to the skies forever?
This is Unveiled, and today we’re answering the extraordinary question; could we build
a floating city?
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There’s at least one place we know of where building a floating city above the clouds
actually amounts to the best chance we’d ever have of living there: Venus.
For all its pretty obvious flaws on the surface, Venus is also Earth’s planetary neighbour:
at times closer to us than even Mars ever gets.
So, if we could work out how to live there, we’d be one big step closer to spreading
out across the solar system.
And, here’s the thing, the higher levels of the Venusian atmosphere are actually quite
friendly to human life.
On the ground, it’s all blistering temperatures and choking carbon dioxide, but that extreme
greenhouse effect is thanks to the CO2 being trapped beneath a thick and dense atmosphere
higher up.
And it’s here, in this thick and dense atmosphere, in the Venusian clouds, where breathable air
is also a lifting gas, that scientists think humans might be able to survive.
But, before all of that, could we work out the logistics and mechanics here on Earth?
And will we ever need to?
One reason why we might need cloud cities is that our cities (as they are) aren’t
always all that permanent… and some of our largest metropolises are actually sinking
into the ground.
Parts of Manhattan in New York, for example, have reportedly been sinking for decades,
while other cities with similar issues include Jakarta in Indonesia, Venice in Italy, and
Bangkok in Thailand.
Sinking cities is one problem we’d be without, though, if we moved to the skies.
More than just solving our current problems, however, in a sci-fi-style far future, floating
cities would also represent a major advancement for humanity as a civilization.
They’d provide us with effectively a pitstop to the stars, or at least to various satellites
in near-Earth orbit, bringing more people much closer to outer space.
In general, we’d no longer be limited to just the land we currently depend upon, and
Earth’s rising population would have more room in which to spread out… but could it
ever really be done?
We’d certainly need to make some major technological improvements.
Currently, the best tools we have for lifting heavy objects into the sky are rockets, which
have obviously proven fairly effective for us so far, transporting relatively small-scale
payloads into space.
With enough of them you could theoretically lift anything off the ground, even a whole
building.
But, it’s not exactly a practical strategy.
Or affordable.
Or in any way sustainable… with hundreds, even thousands, of conventional rockets need
to lift just a single city component, like an office block, or a stadium, or even just
a public restroom.
Consider, then, that, even as we use them now, rockets burn through a huge amount of
fuel very quickly - SpaceX’s Falcon 9 uses $200,000 worth of fuel every single launch,
for example - and you’d essentially need a constant, inexhaustible supply of rocket
fuel to get a city airborne in this way… which just isn’t happening.
There are also the many dangers to think of, with one malfunction in just one of our hypothetically
city-supporting rockets potentially causing an explosion and chain reaction which could
destroy the entire city above it.
And, finally, there’d be the problem of pollution, not least noise pollution.
Anyone on or close to our rocket-propelled city would basically be living next to a space
launch twenty-four hours a day.
And, if anyone or thing was unfortunate enough to live directly underneath it, well, their
prospects for survival would be close to zero.
It’s lucky, then, that rockets aren’t the only option - in neither science fiction
nor science fact.
Sure, we would need rockets to get to Venus, but upon arrival we could switch to something
else; something like balloons and airships.
With airships, while we have reason to be optimistic, there’s also long-lasting cause
for concern, wrapped up in the story of just one vehicle; the Hindenburg.
The Hindenburg ranks as the largest airship in history and had a capacity of fifty passengers
plus crew.
But, it’s also emblematic of all the problems that airships pose after it ignited in a horrific
and infamous disaster in 1937.
Not every airship is automatically as flammable as the Hindenburg was, though, with a major
factor in its demise being that it used hydrogen gas as fuel.
A switch to helium would significantly lower the risk, however, and we know that Venus
has stores of helium ready for us to tap.
If we were to get to Venus, then, and somehow survive long enough to build them, then helium
ships would be an option.
But, better than that, as more elements are lighter than the CO2-clogged air on Venus,
there are more options on Venus for lifting gasses than just helium - including breathable
air (made up of nitrogen and oxygen).
Unfortunately, here on Earth, breathable air isn’t a lifting gas and helium is expensive
and rare… to the point where there isn’t enough available for us to even begin to be
able to lift an entire city.
So, as with rockets, airship cities in reality just aren’t viable.
Perhaps, then, we should explore the potential technology of the future.
Right now, we can’t build floating cities, but someday soon we might, with tech that
hasn’t been invented yet.
And one of the main players in this field is antigravity.
Various people and groups have been trying to develop antigravity for a long time now,
but despite many claims, there remains no credible evidence that it exists.
For others, though, the key could lie with antimatter, which is the opposite of normal,
or baryonic, matter.
Unfortunately, apart from its general definition, we don’t really understand much about antimatter,
and we’ve yet to prove whether it also inverts gravity.
We have just about managed to create antimatter atoms in a lab, but we haven’t observed
whether they’re repelled by gravity in the way that normal matter is attracted.
At this stage, most predictions are that they’re not… so it’s unlikely we’ll be utilizing
antigravity technology (at least, in this form) any time soon.
And, if it’s ever going to be an option for propping up an entire city, we’re going
to have to make not just a few technological tweaks, but whole, fundamental changes.
But, let’s not run before we can walk - or fly before we can float.
We needn’t go from zero to one hundred right away, so building a floating city needn’t
mean transporting structures as substantial as the Eifel Tower or the Golden Gate Bridge
or the Burj Khalifa into the sky.
A sky city would just have to be a lot smaller than a conventional city.
And, in a race between antigravity, rockets and airships… airships (advanced, future
versions of airships) appear the most plausible option.
If we head back to where we started, to the clouds of Venus, a Venusian colony made up
of just two or three of these ships could potentially house more than one hundred astronauts.
It’s not a city by our current understanding, but, then, this wouldn’t be city living
by our current understanding, either.
Home for these astronauts would be a series of aerodynamic airship cabins, and due to
the general toxicity of Venus meaning that commutes between ships would need to be avoided
whenever possible, everything would need to be housed in one place.
Food, water, and places of work all under one roof, miles up in the sky and months away
from Earth.
Compared to what we’re used to, it would feel more like a commune than a city, and
extremely isolated.
Somehow build a similar setup into the skies of our own planet, and the first few sky city
inhabitants would certainly be pioneers, prepared to accept the loneliness of their lives for
the sake of progress, and for some spectacular views!
But comparisons could also be drawn with those who currently man the International Space
Station, and before long one airship could become two, could become five, could become
ten.
But that’s only if we find a way to facilitate such an incredible venture.
And right now, it’s definitely more dream than reality.
Rocket fuel is too expensive, impractical and environmentally devastating.
Helium on Earth is too rare and expensive, but on Venus it (or other lighter-than-air
options) could be available; and antigravity, well, it doesn’t even exist yet.
But that’s how we could build a floating city.
What do you think?
Is there anything we missed?
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