If you get tired of Earth, you may not have to wait much longer for an off-planet trip. A recent study published by Finnish astrophysicist Pekka Janhunen says it would be possible to establish a floating megacity on Ceres, a dwarf planet floating in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Janhunen not only explained his plan for how a megacity could be built, but he suggests it could take shape in the next decade and a half.
According to the journal entry (via New York Post), Ceres was chosen for its similar gravitational qualities, even though it is located about 325 miles from Earth. In layman’s terms, NASA sent the space probe Dawn there in 2007, and it didn’t arrive until 2015.
“We select Ceres as the source body because it is more likely than C-type asteroids to have enough nitrogen,” Janhunen wrote. “Nitrogen is a critical element because it is needed for the settlement atmospheres. We use a disk geometry for the megasatellite because the symmetry eliminates the tidal torque, so reaction wheels are not needed to maintain their attitude. The habitats are illuminated by natural sunlight. collected on the disk by two plane mirrors at an angle of 45 degrees and concentrated to the desired intensity by parabolic mirrors. “
His plan for the mega-city includes a habitat built from thousands of cylindrical structures, each housing more than 50,000 people. These structures would then slowly rotate and create artificial gravity on the surface of the satellite.
Taking advantage of “space elevators” built into the habitat, people living in the mega-city would be able to mine metals found in Ceres to build further structures.
“The utility value of the megasatellite becomes clear when compared to traditional surface settlements. It would be technically possible to colonize the surface of Ceres by means of centrifuge habitats,” added the astrophysicist. “But then the magnetic bearings would have to support the weight of the habitat. The weight is 34 times less than on Earth, but many orders of magnitude more than under the microgravity conditions of the megasatellite.”
Cover photo by Xue Bing / VCG via Getty Images