4 ms·

> floating cities We have decided on Mars, can we stop forking it. Have we learning nothing from Linux? But if you have to, could you hurry up and make a flo

> floating cities We have decided on Mars, can we stop forking it. Have we learning nothing from Linux? But if you have to, could you hurry up and make a floating city on earth to practice? People would pay a tonne of money for that, and having floating cities (In reality small communal groups, so more a village) would be very very neat.

unethical_ban 7y ago
Simulating a land-based, completely sealed off mars- or moon-base in Antarctica is one thing. Simulating the conditions of a base floating in an atmosphere of CO2 is quite another.
- war1025 7y ago
  Wouldn't it come down to basically just a boat / submarine?
  - robotresearcher 7y ago
    That floats in a fluid at 75C. That’s a sub with a major AC challenge.
    - jacobush 7y ago
      So, go higher instead, until the temperature is nice.
rbanffy 7y ago
> make a floating city on earth to practice? Earth's atmosphere is lighter than the Venusian one at that altitude. A balloon filled with breathable air would float naturally. You can't do that on Earth.
- mynegation 7y ago
  You can make pressure inside just a little bit decreased and make this thing fly 1 mile high, for practice. Call it “Denver” or something.
- RandallBrown 7y ago
  Float it on the ocean?
- LargoLasskhyfv 7y ago
  According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_Nine_%28tensegrity_sphere%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_Nine_%28tensegrity_spher... you can.
  - rbanffy 7y ago
    It is possible. Just don't expect living space to be bigger than a hot air balloon basket for the size of a reasonable hot air balloon.
hutzlibu 7y ago
"We have decided on Mars, can we stop forking it. " Who is "we"? I for example, have decided, that we colonize the moon first and then go on from there. But since I sadly do not operate a big space agency/company, my decision is not so relevant (yet). But apart from that, yeah sure, lets build floating cities and (at least partly) self sufficient habitats on earth first, before we try it do it so far away we need at least 6 months to get there.
- FlyMoreRockets 7y ago
  > I for example, have decided, that we colonize the moon first and then go on from there. Why do people work so hard to get out of a gravity well, only to sink down into another one? The moon isn't bad, but the asteroids are where all the action will be. All the materials a civilization could want, relatively easy to access and move around.
dr_dshiv 7y ago
I'm imagining a way to use solar power to grow hydrogen filled mylar cells at scale in a lake or ocean. You could organically grow an enormous platform as a skyport, e.g., elevator up the cable a couple km, then take off from there. Hell, maybe you need these skyports to support the business end of a massdriver. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_driver https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_driver Images (and calculations) in the deck: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1r6CPFJ1AX1ZULacguTf6IyCS1dyiqFz_HsjH-evYiHg/edit?usp=drivesdk https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1r6CPFJ1AX1ZULacguTf6...

unethical_ban 7y ago

Simulating a land-based, completely sealed off mars- or moon-base in Antarctica is one thing. Simulating the conditions of a base floating in an atmosphere of CO2 is quite another.

war1025 7y ago
Wouldn't it come down to basically just a boat / submarine?
- robotresearcher 7y ago
  That floats in a fluid at 75C. That’s a sub with a major AC challenge.
  - jacobush 7y ago
    So, go higher instead, until the temperature is nice.

rbanffy 7y ago

> make a floating city on earth to practice? Earth's atmosphere is lighter than the Venusian one at that altitude. A balloon filled with breathable air would float naturally. You can't do that on Earth.

mynegation 7y ago
You can make pressure inside just a little bit decreased and make this thing fly 1 mile high, for practice. Call it “Denver” or something.
RandallBrown 7y ago
Float it on the ocean?
LargoLasskhyfv 7y ago
According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_Nine_%28tensegrity_sphere%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_Nine_%28tensegrity_spher... you can.
- rbanffy 7y ago
  It is possible. Just don't expect living space to be bigger than a hot air balloon basket for the size of a reasonable hot air balloon.

hutzlibu 7y ago

"We have decided on Mars, can we stop forking it. " Who is "we"? I for example, have decided, that we colonize the moon first and then go on from there. But since I sadly do not operate a big space agency/company, my decision is not so relevant (yet). But apart from that, yeah sure, lets build floating cities and (at least partly) self sufficient habitats on earth first, before we try it do it so far away we need at least 6 months to get there.

FlyMoreRockets 7y ago
> I for example, have decided, that we colonize the moon first and then go on from there. Why do people work so hard to get out of a gravity well, only to sink down into another one? The moon isn't bad, but the asteroids are where all the action will be. All the materials a civilization could want, relatively easy to access and move around.

dr_dshiv 7y ago

I'm imagining a way to use solar power to grow hydrogen filled mylar cells at scale in a lake or ocean. You could organically grow an enormous platform as a skyport, e.g., elevator up the cable a couple km, then take off from there. Hell, maybe you need these skyports to support the business end of a massdriver. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_driver https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_driver Images (and calculations) in the deck: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1r6CPFJ1AX1ZULacguTf6IyCS1dyiqFz_HsjH-evYiHg/edit?usp=drivesdk https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1r6CPFJ1AX1ZULacguTf6...