7 ms·

Massive balloons help polar scientists build underground tunnels

62 points by rhapsodic 9y ago

Phithagoras 9y ago
This technique reminds me of Quinzhee huts. I've been building them for years but I never considered scaling them up to create proper infrastructure.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
mrleinad 9y ago
Those polar scientists are quite resourceful. Nothing like those cartesian scientists.
- jandrese 9y ago
  A lot more fun too. The cartesian ones are a bunch of squares.
  - anigbrowl 9y ago
    No need to be so hyperbolic.
Jaruzel 9y ago
Could some form of this, on an automated scale, be used to build tunnels or covered buildings on Mars?
- noir_lord 9y ago
  Digging a hole, inflating a dome then burying it is an idea that's been considered yes, has the nice benefit of a pressurized atmosphere for the humans inside as well. With access to water you can make martian concrete as well. You can do it without water using molten sulfur as well.
dennyabraham 9y ago
I wonder if this is a potential application for pykrete[1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pykrete https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pykrete
- ninju 9y ago
  Maybe spray the pykrete around the side of the trench, before laying the balloon and mix into the first layers of snow that form on top of the balloon and you might get a much stronger support than just plain snow
nitrogen 9y ago
Underground is a bit of a misnomer; these are under ice and snow.
- fredley 9y ago
  Underwater would be better?
- dredmorbius 9y ago
  Etymological origins suggests this is faithful: ground (n.): Old English grund "bottom; foundation; surface of the earth," also "abyss, Hell," and "bottom of the sea" (a sense preserved in run aground), from Proto-Germanic *grundus, which seems to have meant "deep place" (source also of Old Frisian, Old Saxon, Danish, Swedish grund, Dutch grond, Old High German grunt, German Grund "ground, soil, bottom;" Old Norse grunn "a shallow place," grund "field, plain," grunnr "bottom"). No known cognates outside Germanic. http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=ground http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=ground
jaclaz 9y ago
The idea in itself is not "new", pneumatic formwork (to cast concrete) has been largely used in the past, to build (mainly) waterpipes/aqueducts, but also for civil buildings, As an example this company was established in 1956: http://www.socapsrl.com/about/ http://www.socapsrl.com/about/ And - igloo like - reinforced concrete "thin" structures for domes were largely used since the '60's: https://www.architectural-review.com/rethink/viewpoints/skill-inflatable-concrete-domes/8641827.article https://www.architectural-review.com/rethink/viewpoints/skil... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binishell https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binishell And of course building "arch" tunnels in snow is common enough, and used - as an example - to build (each year) "ice hotels": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_hotel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_hotel It is the mix of the two that might be interesting because of the reduced amount of materials that can be tranported in remote north (or south).
- michaelbuckbee 9y ago
  Residential too - http://www.monolithic.org/ http://www.monolithic.org/ - that site has some neat designs.
- dredmorbius 9y ago
  The "Flintstone House", a/k/a 45 Berryessa Way, Hillsborough, CA, would be another example. Bay Area residents may recall sighting this from Interstate 280, whilst crossing the Crystal Springs Canyon bridge. http://www.flintstonehouse280.com http://www.flintstonehouse280.com https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Flintstone_House https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Flintstone_House http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/flintstone-house-hillsborough http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/flintstone-house-hillsbor...
- digi_owl 9y ago
  One variant of this that i ran into recently was from a british company, meant for erecting temporary shelters etc. Basically a balloon wrapped in a canvas saturated in cement powder. Basically you unrolled, inflated, hosed down with water, and waited for it to harden.
ddlatham 9y ago
Sounds like the balloons are actually not massive, but voluminous.
- dredmorbius 9y ago
  Quite the peeve of mine, though it hadn't occurred to me until the 3rd or 4th sighting of that headline. Bravo.
ninju 9y ago
Looks the tunnels that the article is referring to were built over a year ago http://eastgrip.org/field-diaries-folder/uk-diaries-2016/2016-05-12/ http://eastgrip.org/field-diaries-folder/uk-diaries-2016/201... I guess it takes some time for the story to be written, prioritized and finally published
- mncharity 9y ago
  Treating this as supplemental media thread, the full http://eastgrip.org/uk_diaries_2016/ http://eastgrip.org/uk_diaries_2016/ and http://eastgrip.org/uk_diaries_2017/ http://eastgrip.org/uk_diaries_2017/ field diaries are also online. The author tweeted https://twitter.com/elikint/status/885562039720189953 https://twitter.com/elikint/status/885562039720189953 their video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLZifcrPajE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLZifcrPajE of the story (5:30).

62 points by rhapsodic 9y ago

This technique reminds me of Quinzhee huts. I've been building them for years but I never considered scaling them up to create proper infrastructure.

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

mrleinad 9y ago

Those polar scientists are quite resourceful. Nothing like those cartesian scientists.

jandrese 9y ago
A lot more fun too. The cartesian ones are a bunch of squares.
- anigbrowl 9y ago
  No need to be so hyperbolic.

Jaruzel 9y ago

Could some form of this, on an automated scale, be used to build tunnels or covered buildings on Mars?

noir_lord 9y ago
Digging a hole, inflating a dome then burying it is an idea that's been considered yes, has the nice benefit of a pressurized atmosphere for the humans inside as well. With access to water you can make martian concrete as well. You can do it without water using molten sulfur as well.

dennyabraham 9y ago

I wonder if this is a potential application for pykrete[1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pykrete https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pykrete

ninju 9y ago
Maybe spray the pykrete around the side of the trench, before laying the balloon and mix into the first layers of snow that form on top of the balloon and you might get a much stronger support than just plain snow

nitrogen 9y ago

Underground is a bit of a misnomer; these are under ice and snow.

fredley 9y ago
Underwater would be better?
dredmorbius 9y ago
Etymological origins suggests this is faithful: ground (n.): Old English grund "bottom; foundation; surface of the earth," also "abyss, Hell," and "bottom of the sea" (a sense preserved in run aground), from Proto-Germanic *grundus, which seems to have meant "deep place" (source also of Old Frisian, Old Saxon, Danish, Swedish grund, Dutch grond, Old High German grunt, German Grund "ground, soil, bottom;" Old Norse grunn "a shallow place," grund "field, plain," grunnr "bottom"). No known cognates outside Germanic. http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=ground http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=ground

jaclaz 9y ago

The idea in itself is not "new", pneumatic formwork (to cast concrete) has been largely used in the past, to build (mainly) waterpipes/aqueducts, but also for civil buildings, As an example this company was established in 1956: http://www.socapsrl.com/about/ http://www.socapsrl.com/about/ And - igloo like - reinforced concrete "thin" structures for domes were largely used since the '60's: https://www.architectural-review.com/rethink/viewpoints/skill-inflatable-concrete-domes/8641827.article https://www.architectural-review.com/rethink/viewpoints/skil... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binishell https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binishell And of course building "arch" tunnels in snow is common enough, and used - as an example - to build (each year) "ice hotels": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_hotel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_hotel It is the mix of the two that might be interesting because of the reduced amount of materials that can be tranported in remote north (or south).

michaelbuckbee 9y ago
Residential too - http://www.monolithic.org/ http://www.monolithic.org/ - that site has some neat designs.
dredmorbius 9y ago
The "Flintstone House", a/k/a 45 Berryessa Way, Hillsborough, CA, would be another example. Bay Area residents may recall sighting this from Interstate 280, whilst crossing the Crystal Springs Canyon bridge. http://www.flintstonehouse280.com http://www.flintstonehouse280.com https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Flintstone_House https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Flintstone_House http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/flintstone-house-hillsborough http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/flintstone-house-hillsbor...
digi_owl 9y ago
One variant of this that i ran into recently was from a british company, meant for erecting temporary shelters etc. Basically a balloon wrapped in a canvas saturated in cement powder. Basically you unrolled, inflated, hosed down with water, and waited for it to harden.

ddlatham 9y ago

Sounds like the balloons are actually not massive, but voluminous.

dredmorbius 9y ago
Quite the peeve of mine, though it hadn't occurred to me until the 3rd or 4th sighting of that headline. Bravo.

ninju 9y ago

Looks the tunnels that the article is referring to were built over a year ago http://eastgrip.org/field-diaries-folder/uk-diaries-2016/2016-05-12/ http://eastgrip.org/field-diaries-folder/uk-diaries-2016/201... I guess it takes some time for the story to be written, prioritized and finally published

mncharity 9y ago
Treating this as supplemental media thread, the full http://eastgrip.org/uk_diaries_2016/ http://eastgrip.org/uk_diaries_2016/ and http://eastgrip.org/uk_diaries_2017/ http://eastgrip.org/uk_diaries_2017/ field diaries are also online. The author tweeted https://twitter.com/elikint/status/885562039720189953 https://twitter.com/elikint/status/885562039720189953 their video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLZifcrPajE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLZifcrPajE of the story (5:30).