You really can't account for the human mind, eh. So you will recall the Rosetta spacecraft that landed the Philae probe on the 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko asteroid in August 2014. It was a monumental occasion in scientific research — it was, for example, able to show that the water we have on Earth was unlikely to have been deposited here by comets such a 67P.
Which is all good and well. Yay science.
But if you're Clouds Architecture Office, this event inspires you to think: "what if we captured a giant asteroid, pulled it into orbit around the earth, and then we dangled a gigantic building off it?"
Yes.
"By placing a large asteroid into orbit over earth, a high strength cable can be lowered towards the surface of earth from which a super tall tower can be suspended. Since this new tower typology is suspended in the air, it can be constructed anywhere in the world and transported to its final location. The proposal calls for Analemma to be constructed over Dubai, which has proven to be a specialist in tall building construction at one fifth the cost of New York City construction," the firm's statement said.
The imagined orbit of this thing would take it on an 8-figure tour of the Americas, from the Eastern Seaboard to the coast of Peru.
For context, the very top of the tower would be 32 km above the surface of the earth — much higher than the cruising altitude of commercial flights. In other words, cracking open a window would be out of the question. This thing would be multiple times taller than Burj Khalifa, the current tallest building on earth.
"Manipulating asteroids is no longer relegated to science fiction," CAO said, optimistically. "In 2015 the European Space Agency sparked a new round of investment in asteroid mining concerns by proving with its Rosetta mission that it's possible to rendezvous and land on a spinning comet. NASA has scheduled an asteroid retrieval mission for 2021 which aims to prove the feasibility of capturing and relocating an asteroid."
No word yet on how they'd get permission and material to build the skyscraper (groundscraper?) and who would be crazy enough to want to live in it.
