h a l f b a k e r yRomantic, but doomed to fail.
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This is a very large airship floating high above the clouds, with living quarters for thousands of people.
Solar-heated air inside the airship would keep it aloft; solar panels would provide power for propulsion and everything else. It would contain hydroponic farms to grow food. It might initially
be a platform like the International Space Station, with people visiting it from the ground for several months at a time, but should become a permanent living place with residents being born, living and dying on board. At this point it will have its own Government and will be an entire society in microcosm. This environment will prepare people for migration to other planets, as well as providing an alternative place to live should the Earth's surface become uninhabitable.
There is a small risk that this sky-based colony becomes a band of pirate renegades, hijacking passenger jets with huge nets to gather a haul of spirit miniatures,
half-bottles of wine and other bounty.
So, a UN Citizen(Air)Ship?
SS_20UN_20CitizenShip
I can get behind this (or under it, or on top) because...Pie! [Sgt Teacup, Apr 24 2019]
Cloud Nine
https://en.wikipedi...(tensegrity_sphere)
[xaviergisz, Apr 24 2019]
I have the moon
https://genius.com/...ave-the-moon-lyrics
[calum, Apr 24 2019]
What this would look like from the ground - artist's impression
https://media.wired...ogue-One-Poster.jpg
[hippo, Apr 26 2019]
[link]
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So, I'm assuming that this thing has a rigid hull, and relies on
its vastness to give it the volume-to-area ratio necessary to
float. |
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What altitude will it float at? If it's much above about 12-
15,000ft, then it's either going to need an oxygen-enriched
atmosphere, or it'll have to be pressurized which will seriously
impact its buoyancy. |
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// should the Earth's surface become uninhabitable // |
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Parts of it already are; have you been to Essex ? |
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"You have to be clever to refrain from doing it when you knew how easy it was. There were places in the world commemorating those times when wizards hadn't been quite as clever as that, and on many of them the grass would never grow again." (Terry Pratchett). |
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Will there be pies served? |
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//Will there be pies served?// - a very important question (that's not to say [Max]'s question about the maths of keeping this airborne isn't also important, but, you know, priorities...). I think the answer is 'yes', but I know inquisitive minds will want to know whether the on-board farms contain livestock to supply, for example, a really good steak and ale pie, or whether the pie will be based on soya-based protein meat substitute products. |
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Obviously, the pies will have to be real pies. Also, what you
really want is steak-and-kidney. Now that's a pie. Sturton
once tried to get drunk on steak-and-ale pies, and it didn't
end well. |
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If there were an Academy Award for Understatement, that remark would win it in perpetuity. The mess was ... indescribable. And the smell ... ye gods, the smell ... |
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Didn't R. Buckminster Fuller or somebody like that propose this? |
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No, steak-and-ale pies were around long before his birth. |
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No, I'm pretty sure they're mine. |
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I can see one possible issue with this whole scheme. |
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In order to fly, this thing is going to have be very big. I
haven't done the calculations, but I'm guessing it's going to
come out somewhere between huge and immense. It's also
going to be floating at somewhere between 10,000 and
27,462ft above the ground. That means it's going to cause a
local night as it passes over, which may annoy some people
on the ground. |
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One solution is to have it fly only over the sea. Another
would be to have it fly only where it's already night (which
it could do, if it were fast enough). Another other option
would be for it to be partially transparent (I'm guessing 30%
would do it), for instance by having all of its roads see-
through. This would have the added advantage that it
would look incredibly cool from inside the bubble. |
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Pie in the sky it is then! |
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hmmm one gigantic three or four story wing in a shape which will allow for later adding as many of the same as you want, like Penrose tiles, which wraps unneeded light around it fiber optically causing no more shade on the ground beneath it than a wispy cloud. You could then use changes in altitude to both catch trade winds and provide passive motive power. |
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Someone tell Elon there will be pie... |
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I'm not convinced you can both make it transparent, and solar powered. But also, I don't think it should *be* solar powered, it should have a great big nuclear reactor on board for propulsion. |
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This would help discourage rival sky pirates / governments from attacking, as the fallout from falling out of the sky would be substantial. |
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An enormous double-glazed dome could sit over most of the city, with heated air pumped into it to provide part of the buoyancy. It would also help prevent residents from simultaneously asphyxiating and freezing to death. The remaining lift could be made up with great big propellers. |
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(makes mental note to watch "Laputa" again) |
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[Max] The huge area of shade it casts on the
ground is designed
to reduce global warming. Also, it has to fly in the (local) day-time for the solar panels to work. |
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Probably - this living environment will have a fair number of disco/funk guitar and bass players on board. |
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So there's pie in the sky and a sky hook - we're all
set then. |
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It's a small matter of perspective and insurance. |
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Make the dirigible large enough and the question will be how to keep the Earth aloft in the realm of
the dirigible. |
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The court case will show the Earthlings did not exercise due care which led to an avoidable collision
with the stationary dirigible. The insurance payout will be huge. It could have been more but it was
indeed lucky that all the dirigible dwellers were enjoying a mini-break on the other side of the
Earth at the time and there was no loss of life. |
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Assume that the airship is spherical, and has a 1m thick wall
with a density of 1 (possibly reasonable, assuming some sort
of metal honeycomb structure). Assume also that the air
inside the airship is 20°C warmer than ambient (and that
ambient is around 0°C). |
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In that case, the structure becomes neutrally bouyant when
its diameter reaches about 70km. Of course, you want to
allow for some buildings, people and alcoholic beverages.
So, if you go up to a diameter of 100km, you have a "cargo
capacity" of about 2x10^13kg, or about 100,000 skyscrapers. |
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That’s a good result - something that big is the
right sort of size for a self-sustaining population,
plus hydroponic farms, pie factories, etc. |
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At a pinch, we could ditch the hydroponics. |
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Oh, and ethanol is less dense than water, so it would be
beneficial to have only spirits, beverage-wise. |
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//it will ... be an entire society in microcosm//
//this living environment will have a fair number of
disco/funk guitar and bass players on board//
I am now developing my understanding of the society that
hippo wishes to render microcosmic and airborne. Let the
record show that I approve. |
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//And so the word of the clouds reached the earth via the disco profits// - this would happen if the sky colony's accountants were investing their disco profits in terrestrial stock markets, which would alert these markets to the riches to be realised in
sky-based tax haven opportunities. |
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Very much like this, but concerned about the possible dangers from
inhabitants of the surface. It would be much more romantic to be run in
the ancient times, when the surface inhabitants don't have ways to
remotely endanger the inhabitants of such a sky habitat. However, as an
experiment to learn to live on other planet, -- this is a very good idea :)
[+] |
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