Asteroids could be future viable space habitats, new study suggests

A new research from the University of Rochester scientists shows that asteroids, the rocky bodies orbiting our sun, could be future viable space habitats. Besides their abundance in the solar system, asteroids have many other advantages for human habitation, the researchers say.

In a "wildly theoretical" paper, researchers, including Adam Frank, the Helen F. and Fred H. Gowen Professor of Physics and Astronomy, and Peter Miklavčič, a PhD candidate in mechanical engineering and the paper's first author, outline a plan for creating large cities on asteroids.

In 1972, physicist Gerard O'Neill and his colleagues worked out a plan for "O'Neill cylinders, a spinning space settlement design consisting of two cylinders rotating in opposite directions, with a rod connecting the cylinders at each end. The cylinders would rotate fast enough to provide artificial gravity on their inner surface but slow enough that people inside them would not experience motion sickness.

However, getting the necessary building supplies from Earth to space to create the O'Neill cylinders would be difficult and cost-prohibitive. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Rochester researchers considered this conundrum of creating cost-effective O'Neill cylinders and soon discovered that they might be onto something - could asteroids be used to create O'Neill cylinders?

Miklavčič and his colleagues conducted calculations of forces, materials, and strategies for constructing rotating asteroid settlements and came up with an idea for containing the rubble that would inevitably result from forming an O'Neill cylinder out of an asteroid. They imagine covering an asteroid in a flexible, mesh bag made of ultralight and high-strength carbon nanofibers as the key to creating human cities in space.

According to the researchers, the process could theoretically involve:

• The asteroid would be spun to create artificial gravity. This process would inevitably cause the asteroid to break apart.
• The bits of the asteroid rubble would fling outward, expanding the carbon nanofiber bag enveloping the asteroid.
• When the bag reached its maximum extent, the carbon nanofibers would snap taut, catching the expanding rubble.
• As the rubble settled against the bag, it would produce a layer thick enough to shield against radiation for anyone living inside. The spin of the cylinder would induce artificial gravity on the inner surface.

The findings are published in the journal Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences. More details can be found here.