After colonizing Mars, the next step of human civilization on space should be a Space City.
But with our current technology we are far from building a self-sufficient base in empty
space.
In this video I will show you 4 technologies of the future that will help humanity build
an entire space city. Let's start with
Artificial gravity.
It may still sound like a fictional technology.
But it is not.
It is possible to create artificial gravity with the technology we already have.
But why do we need it?
Although being weightless is an amazing experience, it has some negative effects on the human
body.
To build a space city where humans will live permanently we will need artificial gravity.
The method requires a frame that can rotate.
The rotation will provide centrifugal force.
It's the same force you feel when you try to drive a car in a curved way.
When the car is moving in a straight line nothing happens.
But as soon as the car enters a curve that bends to the left the passengers in the car
experience an apparent force to the right.
Similarly, the astronauts inside the rotating frame will feel a force in the opposite direction
of the center of rotation.
This will be exactly like gravitational pull.
Many science fiction movies have already shown entire space cities built using this technology.
But creating such a rotating space station in real life would be very difficult and expensive.
To simulate Earth's gravitational pull it has to be almost half a kilometre in diameter.
For now scientists have planned to build a smaller rotating frame which will be able
to provide at least half the gravitational pull of earth and it will be installed on
the international space station as a new module.
But in the future if we're going to create entire cities in space we will need to use
this technology at Its full strength.
To build such a giant structure we will need a lot of resources.
We can not take all the resources from earth.
First of all, Earth has limited resources.
Besides It will be extremely costly to transport all those resources to space.
Therefore we need to harvest the resources in space.
That brings us to the next technology in the list.
Asteroid mining.
This is not exactly a technology.
We have to develop several technologies to make asteroid mining a reality.
Asteroids are basically rocks, metals and ice left over from the cloud that formed the
planets 4.5 billion years ago.
Asteroids are all over the solar system with most of them concentrating in the asteroid
belt and kuiper belt.
There are both big and small asteroids containing trillions of worth industrial and precious
metals.
By mining those metals, we can not only build whatever we want but also cover the whole
world's metal needs for years.
Besides, it will also save the environment as Mining on earth causes air and water pollution.
Dangerous chemicals that are used to extract the metals damage the environment as well
as the locals.
Asteroid mining can be a clean source of rare and precious metals.
But with current technology it would cost more to extract the metals than the value
of them.
This is gonna be a big challenge for humanity.
Building any base out of earth would require asteroid mining as it is gonna be the easiest
and most available way to get the resources.
But even if we can develop technologies to successfully extract metals from the asteroids,
we will still need to transport people from earth.
With the effort of companies like Space X, the cost of sending humans to space is reducing
rapidly.
But It's still far from the point where normal people would be able to go to space.
There might be a solution for this in the next Technology..
The Space Elevator.
Instead of launching a whole rocket everytime we send something to space, why don't we just
build an elevator long enough to send stuff directly into space?
Although it will be extremely expensive to build such a thing, once built, it will make
space travel extremely affordable even for normal people to go to space, for a vacation,
maybe.
It may sound crazy at first, but if you think about it, We already have long elevators in
tall buildings.
The tallest building in the world right now is Burj Khalifa, which is about 829 meters
long.
And a successful space elevator needs to be at least 35768 kilometres long.
The reason it needs to be so long is that a giant structure like this can not be supported
by only a base in the ground; it must be supported from space.
This is called the counterweight which can be a geostationary space station.
It needs to move at the same speed as earth rotation.
The centrifugal force provided by the rotation will pull the tether from upside.
So a full space elevator will have four major parts.
The ground base, the counter weight, The tether that will Connect the ground base and the
counterweight.
And a climber that will climb the tether.
With our current technology it is possible to build three parts of the elevator, the
ground base, the counterweight and the climber.
But the tether which is the most important part, we don't have the materials strong enough
to build the tether.
We need something that is about 100 times stronger than steel and it must be much lighter.
There is no chance for mistakes.
If the tether breaks somehow it can cause big problems.
We have to do it right at the first try.
Scientists thought of using the carbon nanotube, but according to newer studies, it may also
not do the job.
So a space elevator will not be a reality soon.
But we can hope for the best.
Maybe in a few years we will find the technology to build the tether.
Until then we need something that is more of a reality.
Here comes the next technology in the list.
The Starship.
After all these futuristic unbelievable technologies.
Let's look at a technology that is more familiar.
It's a rocket.
Not just any rocket.
It's the most powerful rocket ever built by humans.
After so many launches of SpaceX's starship it may not look very special to you.
But actually it is much more advanced than any rocket we had a few years ago.
Starship is part of NASA's 2.9 billion dollars deal with spaceX.
The goal was to develop a fully reusable launch vehicle which is incredibly powerful.
And it has actually come up to the expectations.
Not only is it powerful, it is also cost efficient at the same time.
NASA's space shuttle STS-135, which is the closest thing we ever had to a starship, cost
about 576 million to 1.64 billion dollars per launch.
On the other hand the starship cost only 28 million dollars per launch and Elon Musk wants
to cut down the cost to an unbelievable 2 million dollars in the future.
Whatever we're gonna do in space, Say it, colonising the moon and mars, Mining asteroids
or building a space city.
The starship will be an incredible help to humanity in the near future.
The SN20 is the latest starship which is going to become the first starship to make an orbital
flight.
The starship has a huge internal pressurized space.
It can carry a huge amount of cargo and also humans depending on the application.
According to space x there is space for 40 passenger cabins, common areas, storage space
and a shelter to hide from solar storms.
It can comfortably hold 100 people to mars and even more depending on the mission.
If we're going to build a space city, we will need to transport a lot of people to space.
Until we build something like a space elevator, starships can play a crucial role, to get
the job done.
It's already amazing to think about a spaceship carrying 100 astronauts roaming around space.
Now it feels like science fiction happening in front of our eyes.