What you talkin' 'bout!Google Search Images
city spheres floating in the ocean
I have the idea of a structure behaving "Earthlike," where the sky is up, and the globe aligns with it while rotating. Yet it could dive in bad weather, or even take evasive action in the case of a great cataclysm. Material scientists would have great fun throwing in on the building materials. Mechanical engineers working with those materials would fully enjoy their work. It could be ultra modern, and a great challenge. Seems it would be fun stuff for a large workforce.Materials strength aside, I wonder if a sphere would be the optimal shape for a structure so large that it occupies a wide gradient of pressures.
I wonder what shape might be more efficient.
No reason the skin couldn't be adaptable, and take any shape. The whole structure could be totally adaptable to its environment, saving interplanetary rocks. Water is a great insulator from projectiles. Also considering water is the greatest resource on the planet I'm sure the chemists would have great fun with it, along with the material scientists. It would be AE - Artificial Earth - self contained absolutely defensible life containment facility. I see hospitals, research facilities, and schools at the center hub, with a humanistic technocracy as government. Throw that into Sim-City, and see how it plays out. If it works someone will build it. TBH, the atmosphere of Earth seems very frail. The AE could have a much more robust atmosphere for life.I checked on a real science forum.
A more appropriate shape for a pressurized-but-internally-open vessel that spans a wide gradient of pressures would be an inverted cone. This would optimize the pressure over the surface of the vessel at all depths. (It would have a number of other advantageous features as well, such as maximizing the light-gathering/redistribution effect.)
Of course, you would never build such a structure (of any shape) of that size that's internally open. Any failure would result in complete flooding, and loss of all but the luckiest lives in a matter of seconds.
You would build it as orbs-and-tubes, rife with pressure bulkheads.
I checked on a real science forum.
A more appropriate shape for a pressurized-but-internally-open vessel that spans a wide gradient of pressures would be an inverted cone. This would optimize the pressure over the surface of the vessel at all depths. (It would have a number of other advantageous features as well, such as maximizing the light-gathering/redistribution effect.)
Of course, you would never build such a structure (of any shape) of that size that's internally open. Any failure would result in complete flooding, and loss of all but the luckiest lives in a matter of seconds.
You would build it as orbs-and-tubes, rife with pressure bulkheads.
The sphere is open at the top - above water. Thus, it is at one atmosphere throughout.You would build the sphere on land first . Then pressurize the sphere positively , so that the pressure pushes OUT ,
The idea is brilliant, but the structural problem is that the deeper you go the greater the external pressure is on the hull.The sphere is open at the top - above water. Thus, it is at one atmosphere throughout.
Actually they now have "apartment" ships for permanent residency. Of course they are not submarine, but we are looking in that direction. I remember the submarine habitat. Whatever became of that?Chalk it up as an idle fantasy.
He's not seriously proposing it as a solution to anything. He's just imagining.Are you totally high? You realize this could only be a toy for the world's elite? It's a gigantic submarine. We need reasonably dense, mixed use urban development, where industry can co-exist with residences, retail space, and public parks - everything accessible with mass transportation.
Otherwise, you're better off with a barge.
I'm amazed that there is enough food and water for the urban populations around the world. Problem 1 is population. Get it down to a few million really smart people, and then work on problem 2. Why are the people of Earth oblivious to the problem? It's easily solved with reproductive inhibitors, or do we want to populate our way into starvation? So much senselessness on this planet. Our hero's: I want to launch my Chevy beater into space. Why? Whywar? Now it's Iran in Syria. Just another place to use up all those weapons, reduce the populations, level the towns, enrich the weapons dealers, and basically destroy the hopes and dreams of family life in the area. Just how stupid - on a scale of 2 are people - who would rather die than solve life's simple problems? Oh gee. I would rather eat the soap than do the laundry. That's a 2.Otherwise, you're better off with a barge.
Sure. Population control worked so well for the Nazis. The world loved it.It's easily solved with reproductive inhibitors
So we have a future beyond this rock?Our hero's: I want to launch my Chevy beater into space. Why?
Easy to say.who would rather die than solve life's simple problems?
The idea is brilliant, but the structural problem is that the deeper you go the greater the external pressure is on the hull.
In water the external pressure adds 1 atmoshphere every 30 foot and increases with every foot deeper than that. So practical size becomes an issue.