Imagine that one morning you wake up in a
wonderful mood. Then you
mosey on over to the window, gaze outside, and... freeze in complete
and utter terror! There is a vast, black emptiness behind the
glass... no trees, no clouds, no nothin’! You rush to the door, fling it open, and all
you can see is a yawning abyss. No, you are not experiencing a waking
nightmare, and the world has not suddenly evaporated overnight. You
are simply in a skyscraper, and not just any skyscraper - the coolest
skyscraper in the world! The thing is: this is no ordinary dwelling,
but a domicile flipped upside down, hanging from
orbit like an apple from a tree. American architects have already developed
such a project, and this proposed architectural masterpiece is called
the Analemma Tower. In astronomy, an Analemma is a diagrammatical
curve that shows the position of the Sun in the sky, from one location
on Earth, at the same time of day throughout the year. A diagram like this will always resemble
a figure 8. The designers believe that this name suits
the concept of a flying skyscraper, as it will also travel
a similar path through the skies. Obviously, nobody will have to walk upside
down in this thing. However,
in relation to the Earth’s surface, the building will indeed be upside down. The trick is that they want to hang this skyscraper
from an asteroid that will be maneuvered into the Earth’s orbit. At first glance, the idea looks
like something from the plot of a science fiction film. Can we really
harness an asteroid? Well, in fact, in 2021, NASA is planning to
catch a random asteroid wandering somewhere in space,
and indeed lasso the thing and move it closer
to our planet. The plan is to
research this captured space body, and then hopefully to harvest the
thing for its various elements, in particular its rare and valuable metals. If the mission is successful, then another
cosmic body can be captured and brought into the Earth’s domain, where
it will be maneuvered into orbit at an altitude of 31 miles and adjusted
for the foundation of the Analemma Tower. After that, with the help of the Universal
Orbital Support System - which was developed by the
project’s architects - the building can be suspended, or hung. Heavy-duty cables attached to the
asteroid will be something like its “skeleton”. And all the prefabricated
modules will begin to be mounted roughly 20 miles lower. They are
inviting builders to construct the modules for this architectural
masterwork in the USA, and they are also calling on special construction
experts from the United Arab Emirates. Arab specialists, by the way, are
well experienced in skyscraper construction. They have recently built
several towers much faster, and for about one fifth the cost, than their
counterparts from the United States, or much of the rest of the world,
can do. In order to save money, the developers want
to build the skyscraper over Dubai, where land is about
1/15 th the cost of land in New York. The finished modules, or sections, will be
transported to the Emirates, and the building can begin to be
hung from the cables attached to the asteroid. This giant skyscraper will extend for more
than 12 miles from top to bottom, meaning its “roof”
or top will be somewhere in the troposphere, far above the Earth’s
surface. To prevent this remarkable skyscraper from
falling on someone’s head, the creators plan on using super-strong materials
and innovative anchors. Something like transparent aluminum, which
is three times stronger than steel, will probably be suitable
for the job. And likely
nanomaterials will be used as well, as, according to scientists, they are
almost impossible to damage or destroy. It’s also proposed to build
these celestial “brick” modules from concrete, but not just any old
concrete. This will be a special space-age concrete
mixed with the most durable substance in the world - graphene. The building also has
to have windows. Interestingly, their size and shape will vary
with altitude and temperature. So, for example, windows located above the
troposphere will need to be very thick. And due to the curvature of the
Earth, the Sun will shine for 40 minutes longer there than on the floors
that are lower down. Inside, the tower will be divided into sections. The closest floors to the
Earth will contain business centers, shopping malls and stores, and
entertainment sectors. The middle will be used for residential premises. And the top, closest to heaven, will be relegated
for religious institutions, as well as having a cemetery. In the case of a funeral, one will not have
to return to the surface of the Earth. All sectors will have magnificent
gardens with lush lawns, glorious flower parks, and ever-sprouting fruit
trees. Everything is set up so that returning to
the surface of our home planet will become mostly unnecessary. Residents of the mega-tower
will travel more than enough on their own. In fact, every day the building
will fly around the Earth in a figure-eight trajectory at a speed of up to
300 miles per hour. The path of the skyscraper will be perfectly
calculated so that it goes over many major cities in the Northern and
Southern Hemispheres, such as Havana, Atlanta, Panama City, New
York, and others. During clear weather, residents of these big
cities will be able to watch as this marvel of engineering
and construction will soar across the sky. In addition, this smart skyscraper will produce
all the fundamental requirements for life on site. On the upper floors, where
there are no clouds, numerous solar panels will be installed. They will
fully provide all of the necessary energy for the upside down city in the
sky. And on the lower floors, huge units will condense
water from the clouds, collecting it into tanks. If something happens on Earth, like
volcanoes erupting, bombs exploding, or storms or hurricanes
devastating the land, the inhabitants of the Analemma Tower will
continue living on as if nothing happened. However, a note of caution: in
the Analemma Tower itself, catastrophe could also occur. For example,
an uncontrolled fire or a serious flood from rupture pipes in the water
supply. In this case, according to the plan of the
designers, people will be quickly evacuated on specially designed
parachutes, or by aircraft, which will constantly run between the skyscraper
and our planet below. And yet, the Analemma Tower is unlikely to
become some kind of ultimate paradise, like the Elysium space
station habitat from the eponymous
American science fiction film. Here, for example, is a simple question to
which the authors of the project did not yet give an answer: where are
they going to put all of the enormous amount of bio-waste they produce? You can’t just dump it out on the heads
of Earth’s inhabitants below, though that would be pretty funny. They will probably be flown or
parachuted down to the surface of the planet below, or out into space
above, in special containers. But however it is done, it will be very
expensive. In addition, up at the top of the structure,
people won’t be able to take even a single step outside without
a protective suit, due to the obvious absence of air at that altitude,
and a temperature of -40 degrees Fahrenheit. It looks like people living in this futuristic
mega- structure they will have to face a kind of
total isolation in this huge, luxurious, and self-sufficient but, nonetheless,
confined space. Although
it should be noted, the international space station has been continuously
inhabited for decades, with some astronauts living there for a combined
total of almost 2 years, and they feel just dandy. The developers of the
Analemma project are confident that they will find answers to all the
various questions posed, and that their creation will be a resounding
success. The recent boom in skyscrapers has shown that
the sale price of space increases as the floor numbers rise. It is partly due to this that
the designers envision recouping all of their costs after finishing
construction of this mind-blowing tower. If successful, the Analemma
Tower will be the first model of supra-planetary architectural design, and
also will clinch the title as the tallest building in the world. The developers of the Analemma Tower have
not yet broken ground on construction, but they have already made plans
for a similar project for a skyscraper outside the confines of our planet. This one would hang
above Venus! They also plan to suspend it from an asteroid
- this time in the orbit of Venus - at an altitude of 31
miles. And there is yet another
project for Venus of a similar design planned by project leaders from the
USA. This one is called the Venus Garden Tower. According to the
creators of this orbiting edifice, such a structure is the only possibly way
to colonize the so-called “Morning Star” Venus, as its surface is a living
hell. The planet is constantly flooded with hot
lava from the eruptions of over six hundred volcanoes, the air is chock
full of carbon dioxide and hydrochloric acid vapor, and the pressure
on the surface is approximately 90 Earth atmospheres. As well, the temperature reaches
864 degrees Fahrenheit - twice that of your everyday, friendly kitchen
oven. But if you get to a height of 31 miles above
Venus, everything is completely different. There it is much more similar to the Earth. Travelers
at that altitude can expect a comfortable pressure of one Earth
atmosphere, and their thermometers will register a balmy 59 degrees
Fahrenheit, or about 15 degrees Celsius. Not too shabby. Venus Garden Tower is proposed to be built
in the form of a futuristic spiral tower. Sections, approximately 32 x 98 feet in size,
will be meticulously constructed here on Earth. And then each will then be
placed in the cargo hold of a proposed interplanetary spacecraft,
transported to Venus, and assembled on site. Heavy-duty cables made
of carbon nanomaterials will serve as the core or frame of this ambitious
construction. In the center of the structure will be a hollow
tube, which will contain six small elevators, as well
as a spiral staircase, connecting all of the different levels. Fan-like sections will be attached to the
pipe, each of which will unfold like a jack-knife
and spread out once construction is completed. Each section of the tower will be able to
accommodate approximately 200 people. The outer skin of the
skyscraper will be covered in a transparent inflatable membrane made of
super-strong, high endurance material. The developers have high hopes
for something called Tedlar film in particular, which can serve for very
long periods, under very harsh conditions, in almost any climate
imaginable. Of course, at the moment these buildings seem
less like real residential spaces, and rather more like chimeras. However, science is advancing
so quickly these days that these amazing buildings may soon become
something like ordinary, everyday skyscrapers. And the architects of the
future are already planning to go even further, constructing some kind of
a new Analemmas and Venus Towers, but these perhaps allowing their
inhabitants to one day travel to other asteroids, solar systems, galaxies,
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