Decades of space exploration have made us understand that the Earth, as part of a Solar System, has its days numbered. There is a long way to go before that end that condemns us appears in front of us. But as humanity we must investigate what options we have so as not to become extinct as a race.
Living on another planet is the first option that scientists have thought of. And Mars, our neighbor, stands as one of the main focuses for humanity.
It will be necessary to create the conditions for the red planet to welcome us without problems. However, this is not the only option available to us. Scientists with a certain level of eccentricity have raised living wandering through space in rotating ships that recreate the basic requirements for life.
This is how the idea of the Bishop Ring was born, a type of rotating space habitat that was originally proposed in 1997 by the scientist Forrest Bishop, of the Institute for Atomic Scale Engineering.
The concept that the expert imagines is a smaller-scale version of the Banks Orbital, which in turn is a smaller version of the Niven ring. Like other space habitat designs, the Bishop Ring would rotate to produce artificial gravity through centrifugal force; step one solved.
The design differs from the classic designs produced in the 1970s by Gerard K. O’Neill and NASA in that it would use carbon nanotubes instead of steel, allowing a much larger habitat to be built.
We asked Bard, Google’s Artificial Intelligence, its characteristics and this was his answer:
- It is a cylindrical structure with a radius of about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles).
- It rotates at a rate of about 1 rotation per minute, which produces an artificial gravity of about 1 g.
- It is made of carbon nanotubes, which are a very strong and light material.
- It can support a population of up to 1 million people.
- It would be powered by solar panels and/or nuclear reactors.
Bishop Rings has been proposed as a possible solution to the problem of space colonization. They would provide a large, comfortable habitat for humans, and would be relatively easy to build using current technology. However, there are still many challenges that need to be overcome before Bishop Rings can become a reality, such as the cost of construction and the development of new materials.