X_treme space The studio will explore architectural, urban, social, and landscape issues pertaining to extreme conditions, found both on earth and outer space locations. The technical focus will be directed towards adaptable and responsive structures: an architecture that negotiates external forces and divergent internal requirement. We will work on a link between x_treme ground and x_treme outer atmosphere, gravity and weightlessness. Through the creation of habitats in both extreme terrestrial and extra-terrestrial locations, the unique opportunities / advantages that these conditions create will emerge, e.g. what are the commercial opportunities for a space-port, what are potentials of non-gravity biological and pharmaceutical research etc. This line of enquiry will be systematically evidenced through the prototyping of efficient / responsive architectural proposals and outcomes. There is a rich lineage of social, architectural, and technological precedent, ranging from NASA’s space habitats of the late 1960s to the MIR/international Space Station. Currently, the development of the space industry and tourism is evidenced by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, Burt Rutan’s Scaledc Composites and RIchard Branson’s planned Virgin Galatic Spaceports in New Mexico, Abu Dhabi, Sweden and Signapore.
GLOBAL HABITATION Colonization: Colonies have formed all over the world ranging from that of small villages to large urban areas. Colonization ‘occurs whenever any one or more species populate an area. The term means to inhabit, cultivate, frequent, practice, tend, gaurd, and respect [usually relating to humans]. An optimal community consists of at least 200 people. It is formed usually as a result of geographical location along with similarvalues and social cohension within this particular location. Community = organized society. These communities may consists of small villages/ settlements to larger spatial subdivisions such as cities and other large settlements that together form multiple communities in one area. But now with the technological advances present in our current world the idea of community on some level has shifted. It is no longer constrained to geography/location but other communities begin to form that consist of members from all over the world sharing common beliefs or similar cultural backgrounds etc. The internet has created an overall mass community over the world along with smaller nodes that have branched off.
SPACE HABITATION Colonies in Space: The major goal of many of the space colonies is to create autonomous, self-sufficient human habitation in locations outside of earth. Most of the designed colonies are in orbit not on another planet. Colonies must be designed with many things in mind if they want to be self-sufficient and independent of earth; these people must have acces to water, food energy, simulated gravity, transportation, and protection against specific characteristics of space that the human body is unprepared for. The major design goals are 1. Design a habitat to meet all the physiological requirements of a permanent population and to foster a viable social community. 2. Obtain an adequate supply of raw materials and provide the capability to process them. 3. Provide an adequate transport system to carry people, raw materials, and items of trade. 4. Develop commericial activity sufficient to attract capital and to produce goods and services for trade with Earth. An example is Gerard O’Neill and Princeton students project in 1969; they designed a habitat that consisted of various long cylinders with hemispherical end-caps. A closed ecological system that would rotate around the earth at the same distance as the moon. The general idea is to provide another place off habitation when population grows to numbers that earth can no longer provide the necessary resources. These permanent settlements could turn into something even larger much like cities here on earth. The habitat could be isolated from humanity on earth but close enough for help if its needed. The desire to: “exploit actively the environment of space to an extent that permits growth, replication, and the eventual creation of much larger communities�.
GEOGRAPHIC COMMUNITY COMMUNITY ACCORDING TO GEOGRAPHIC LOCATION Many communities as established before are created through location. Much like the Massai in Kenya, a settlement located on the top platform of a steep, independent mountain. It is isolated from other regions because of this unique geography. The community is formed as a result of this, people who live in close proximity begin to socially interact in a certain way. A small village like Massai constitutes a social community, and moving into larger areas such as cities or other large settlements smaller communities begin to form in certain smaller subdivided areas. These communities can range from local neighborhoods, suburbs, towns/cities, regions, nations, or even internationally [all over the globe]. A municipality is an administrative local area generally composed of a clearly defined territory and commonly referring to a town or village. A city consists of municipalities, or collections of communities due to diversity. Neighborhoods are common, a localized community. Some communities were planned by location, and were designed and located for specific regions, many of the cities capitals were built up in this way.
CENTRALIZED COMMUNITY COMMUNITY GROWTH WITH CENTRAL HUB Paris is an example of a city that grew off a central area that generally is consistent and never-changing while the periphery is constantly changing and growing. Many older cities follow this same model of growth and scalebility. It is interesting in a way that you can see the aging of the city much like that of the trunk of a tree. The central hub being the oldest urban area while the further you travel out from that area the younger the city becomes. This configuration would also work in space in a sense that there is a central point where the main hub could be undetermined by gravity and other earthly forces where multiplication could occur and pattern growth to scale the hub/small habitation to a much larger settlement. Designing from the ground up would not work in this anti-gravity environment so following the ring like pattern of the city of Paris could function within both environments. Past space colonization designed have followed a similar model, looking at past precendents many are of ring, torus, or cylindrical shapes/forms. Since many of these past projects want to mimick human life on earth they look to past functions settlements all over the globe as precedents. The idea of a centralized community is appealing in a way that allows for organization, communication, transportation, and self sustaining aspects become easier in this configuration.
The french revolution 1789
focus on the center [the oldest, most beautiful, most historic part of city]
permanent center ever-changing periphery
COMMUNITY of CULTURE COMMUNITY FORMATION BASED ON CULTURAL/ RELIGIOUS BELEIFS There have been many small communities formed through common beleifs and cultures within larger settlements such as cities/urban ares/suburban areas. These communities range from local cliques, subcultures, ethnic groups, religious groups, multicultural or pluralistic civilizations, or the global community of today. They could also form from groups/people of need and identity such as disabled communities and elderly communities. Socialization is a big part of cultural communities, most importantly humans learning to adopt behavior patterns of their community. The eraly stages of life where individuals develop skills and knowledge to learn their role in the culture and social community is of much importance. This is influenced by the humans surroundings such as school, peers, family, work, government etc. Religion for example is a large holder and builder of communities. With every large urban area there are smaller communites based on religion, whether it be judaism, catholicism, mormon etc. These communities can also be found in areas outside of the city for example the strong mormon community located in Utah. Sometimes strong religious communities will move out of the confines of a city to somewhere more suburban where they can regulate their own lifestyle to how they see fit.
LOCATION Deep Gravity Valleys: The Earths’s well is 22 times deeper than that of the Moon. Matter can be more easily lifted into space from the Moon than from the Earth. In the Earth - Moon system there are shallow valleys known as Lagrangian libration points. There are five of these points, and they arise from balancing gravitational attractions of Earth and Moon.
L2
Points L1, L2, L3 have unstable equilibrium position in space which changes continuously. The L4 and L5 points lie at the third corners of the two equilateral triangles in the plane of orbit whose common base is the line between the centers of the two masses, such that the point lies behind (L5) or ahead of (L4) the smaller mass with regard to its orbit around the larger mass. The reason these points are in balance is that, at L4 and L5, the distances to the two masses are equal. Accordingly, the gravitational forces from the two massive bodies are in the same ratio as the masses of the two bodies, and so the resultant force acts through the barycenter of the system; additionally, the geometry of the triangle ensures that the resultant acceleration is to the distance from the barycenter in the same ratio as for the two massive bodies. The barycenter being both the center of mass and center of rotation of the system, this resultant force is exactly that required to keep a body at the Lagrange point in orbital equilibrium with the rest of the system. (source "Lagrange Points" by Enrique Zeleny, Wolfram Demonstrations Project)
moon L1 L5
L4
60Âş earth geosynchronous orbit
moon luna
rm
L3
ateri
al
human
h pla uma nt ns s ,a an n d im m als ac , hin es
s and m achines
colony at L5
satelite solar power stations
earth
SPACE COLONIZATION SYSTEM
new colonies
scale 10^8 meters
SHAPES of HABITATS Bumbells, Torus, Spheres and Cylinders Large structures in space do not require support and their movement is restricted by inertia. Because of Pseudogravity requirements, NASA did studies on center (symmetrical) based shapes for Habitat. Because of the symmetry, cylinders, torus and spheres allow for a central rotation, where the edges of the shape create habbitats that are controlled witgh gravity. Shape types are not only studied for gravitational purposes but also for psychological considerations of the inhabitants and how it would affect their health, social interactions and social organizations.
Axis of Rotation
Habitable areas
r
TORUS
1
axis of rotation
SPHERE
R
2 3
2R
z
2r
plane of projected area
Y(r+R) plane of projected area
axis of rotation
yR
1. SPHERE - any axis 2. CYLINDER - rotating curve 2 on z axis 3. TORUS - rotating curve 3 on r axis 4. DUMBELL - rotating curve 3 on r axis
SHAPES of COMMUNITIES and SOCIAL ORGANIZATIONS A. Homogenistic and Hierarchial
B. Individualistic and Isolationistic
C. Heterogenistic, Mutualistic and Symbiotic
The people of such communities think in terms of maximixation and optimixtion. They consider majority rule as the basis of democracy, and competition as basis or progress. They look for universal criteria and universal categories which would apply to all people, and they look for unitiy by means of similarities. Differences are considered as accidental, inconvenient or bothersome, and are ignored as much as possible. Diversity, nonstandard behavior, and minority groups are considered abnormal and undesirable. Because od the belied that unity is achieved by homogeneity and that differences create conflicts, residents are divided into age groups, occupational groups and the like such a way that each group is homogeneous within itself. Similarly all living units are concentrated in one zone; industrial facilities in another zone. This allows for a large continuous area suitable for recreation activities which require large space.
People in this community think that independence is a virtue, both from the point of view of the person who is independend and from the point of view of others from whom he or she is independent. They consider self sufficiency as the highest form of existance. Dependence and interdependence are looked down upon as weakness or sin. Each living unit is like a self-contained castle and is insulated against others in terms of sight, sound and smell. Each unit contains recreational facilities and there is no communal recreational area. Within each unit everything is adjustable to the individual taste. Protection of privacy is the major concern.
Symbiosis of biological and social process due to mutual interaction. Heterogeneity is considered as a source of enrichment, symbioris, resource diversification, flexibility, survival and evolution. Majority rule is considered. Competition is considered useless and cooperation is useful. People of different ages, different occupations, different family compositions are thrown together and interwoved, so that people can help one another. for example, old people who love children are placed near families who need babysitters. Antagonistic combinations are avoided. There are two types of heterogenization: localization and interweaving. In localization, each of the heterogeneous elements seperates itself and settles in one locality, such examples are China Town in Los Angeles. Interweaving allows individual to heterogenize himself. Example, a white person may eat Chinese food one day, learn Judo and become a Tibetan Monk.
ENVIRONMENT EFFECTS Psychological Effects: Solipsism Syndrome in Artificial Environment Solipsism syndrome is a pathological psychiatric condition involving a dissociative mental state. This psychiatric condition is characterized by a detachment from reality – a state of mind in which a person begins to feel that all reality is internal and the remainder of the perceived universe is unreal or only exists in a dream state. Such conditions can occur in the Artic winder when the night is 24 hours a day. It is also know to occur in some youths who have been brought up on television as substitute to reality. As a result from suffering from solipsism, a person feels very lonely, detached and eventually becomes apathetic and indifferent. There are several ways to alleviate the tendency toward the solipsism syndrom though design: 1. create large geometries where one can see far 2. humans are able to manipulate things to cope with reality. the environment has to have some amount of “unpredictability”. And example of unpredictable things is plants and animals, which humans cannot control. 3. something must exist which grows. 4. something beyond the horizon
PHYSIOLOGICAL NEEDS 1. Pseudogravity 2. Atmosphere 3. Food and Water 4. Environmental Design variations 5. Psychological and Cultural Considerations Pseudogravity is required because without it the body presumibly draws calcium from the bones to correct electrolyte imbalances. In Zero Gravity the balance in cellular fluids and electrolyte is not achieved. Hormones, proteins and balance mechanisms in ears also suffer in Zero Gravity. The minimum gravity needed is 0.9-1G (same as on earth’s surface). Gravity can be achieved by Centrefugal Force. Humans are able to adapt to rates below 3rpm after prolonged exposures.
g
ENVIRONMENT Environments have to be created with the maximum efficiency and minimum mass. The design of the environment has to meet the psychological, social, cultural and estheric needs of colony’s inhabitants while also satisfying their physiological needs. Space of colony should not be focused on specifics but on range of options. Colonists need access to both large and small, private and community spaces, to long views and small views and with easily manipulative architecture. Pseudogravity depends upon rotation rate and radius of rotation. For example, c-3 would weight about 42,300kt and have a projected area of 55x10^6 m2, enough to hold 800,000 people.
1000
c4 100
c3 c2
10
c1
s1 Sandford Torus radius
1
r nde cyli re she
.1
toru
THICKNESS
VARIATIONS OF ENVRIONMENT
RADIUS
10
s
100
1000
10000
Shell thickness as function of radius for spheres, cylinders and toruses spinning to produce 1g
SHIELDING Humans need to be shielded from ionizing radiations of space. And ideal shield would bring the radiation dosage below 0.5 rem/yr. There are two types of shields a)passive shields b)active shields. Active shield - charged particles pass though magnetic field creatic magnetic curves and field likes that can form a shield against particles below a certain cutoff momentum or cutoff energy. Particles above this cutoff momentum can still penetrate. Passive shield - Earth’s atmosphere is an example of passive shielding and is very effective. Only half the amount of it is needed to bring the dosage level of cosmic rays down to 0.5 rem/yr. Different shielding masses are required for different configurations.
radiation particle
Magnetic field lines
ACTIVE SHIELD
super conductive coil
Paleo-future
Don Davis’s Space Colony, 1970s
Kubrick, 2001 Space Station
Collier’s lunar spaceship, October 18, 1952
Mass driver engine approaching an astriod.