Project Persphone: British Scientists Building 'Living Space Ark' To Save Humanity
British Scientists Building 'Living Space Ark' To Save Humanity
Huffington Post UK
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British scientists are working on a space ark capable of sustaining humanity in the event of a global catastrophe.
Even though none of them will ever live to see it launched.
The Times reports that researchers from the universities of Greenwich, Warwick and Surrey are helping to lead the project, which is known as Project Persephone.
Above: a vision of a living spaceship by Adam Benton, including an 'open' design exposed to an internal nuclear engine/sun
The stated aim is to investigate "living technologies" that might help in the "context of habitable starship architecture that can respond and evolve according to the needs of its inhabitants". The vision is for a craft capable of sustaining a few thousand individuals for multiple generations, while the ship travels to a planet able to sustain life.
The idea is for the craft to be self-sustaining, forming an ecosystem which incorporates some of the same processes seen on Earth for generating light, air, water, food and gravity, but using the best elements of modern tech too.
Key to the effort will be the development of biofuels and artificial soil.
Rachel Armstrong, a senior architecture and design lecturer at the University of Greenwich, told the Times: "it's about challenging our notion of sustainability and looking at what the conditions are for survival and how we would take those with us."
Artists' Conceptions Of Extrasolar Planets
NASA's Kepler Mission Discovers Planet(01 of05)
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In this handout illustration made available on December 5, 2011 by NASA, the Kepler-22b, a planet known to comfortably circle in the habitable zone of a sun-like star is digitally illustrated. For the first time NASA's Kepler mission has confirmed a planet to orbit in a star's habitable zone; the region around a star, where liquid water, a requirement for life on Earth, could persist. The planet is 2.4 times the size of Earth, making it the smallest yet found to orbit in the middle of the habit. Clouds could exist in this earth's atmosphere, as the artist's interpretive illustration depicts. (Photo Illustration by Ames/JPL-Caltech/NASA via Getty Images) (credit:Getty)
NASA's Kepler Mission Discovers Planet(02 of05)
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In this handout illustration made available on December 5, 2011 by NASA, a diagram compares our own solar system to Kepler-22, a star system containing the first 'habitable zone' planet discovered by NASA's Kepler mission. The habitable zone is the sweet spot around a star where temperatures are right for water to exist in its liquid form. Liquid water is essential for life on Earth. The diagram displays an artist's rendering of the planet comfortably orbiting within the habitable zone, similar to where Earth circles the sun. Kepler-22b has a yearly orbit of 289 days. The planet is the smallest known to orbit in the middle of the habitable zone of a sun-like star and is about 2.4 times the size of Earth. (Photo Illustration by Ames/JPL-Caltech/NASA via Getty Images) (credit:Getty)
Extrasolar Planet HD 209458 b, Osiris(03 of05)
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Artist's conception released by NASA of extrasolar planet HD 209458 b, also known as Osiris, orbiting its star in the constellation Pegasus, some 150 light years from Earth's solar system. Scientists have used an infrared spectrum -- the first ever obtained for an extrasolar planet -- to analyze Osiris' atmosphere, which is said to contain dust but no water. The planet's surface temperature is more than 700 Celsius (1330 Fahrenheit).' (credit:Getty)
Planet & Its Parent Star(04 of05)
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Picture released 04 October 2006 by the European Space Agency shows an artist's impression of a Jupiter-sized planet passing in front of its parent star. Such events are called transits. When the planet transits the star, the star's apparent brightness drops by a few percent for a short period. Through this technique, astronomers can use the Hubble Space Telescope to search for planets across the galaxy by measuring periodic changes in a star's luminosity. The first class of exoplanets found by this technique are the so-called 'hot Jupiters,' which are so close to their stars they complete an orbit within days, or even hours. A seam of stars at the centre of the Milky Way has shown astronomers that an entirely new class of planets closely orbiting distant suns is waiting to be explored, according to a paper published 04 October 2006. An international team of astronomers, using a camera aboard NASA's Hubble telescope, delved into a zone of the Milky Way known as the 'galactic bulge', thus called because it is rich in stars and in the gas and dust which go to make up stars and planets. The finding opens up a new area of investigation for space scientists probing extrasolar planets - planets that orbit stars other than our own. AFP PHOTO NASA/ESA/K. SAHU (STScI) AND THE SWEEPS SCIENCE TEAM (credit:Getty)
Hot Jupiter(05 of05)
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Picture released 04 October 2006 by the European Space Agency shows an artist's impression of a unique type of exoplanet discovered with the Hubble Space Telescope. This image presents a purely speculative view of what such a 'hot Jupiter' (word dedicated to planets so close to their stars with such short orbital periods) might look like. A seam of stars at the centre of the Milky Way has shown astronomers that an entirely new class of planets closely orbiting distant suns is waiting to be explored, according to a paper published 04 October 2006. An international team of astronomers, using a camera aboard NASA's Hubble telescope, delved into a zone of the Milky Way known as the 'galactic bulge', thus called because it is rich in stars and in the gas and dust which go to make up stars and planets. The finding opens up a new area of investigation for space scientists probing extrasolar planets - planets that orbit stars other than our own. AFP PHOTO NASA/ESA/K. SAHU (STScI) AND THE SWEEPS SCIENCE TEAM (credit:Getty)
On the project's website the team adds:
"A habitable long duration starship will need evolvable environments that not only use resources efficiently but can respond quickly to the needs of populations and bypass the current necessary time lags that are implicit in the current system – in identifying critical upgrades and then activating industrial supply and procurement chains – which are already playing catch-up by the time they are realized."
"The blunt answer is two fold. First, we don’t know that fruition will take centuries; it may, and then again, it may not. If we don’t first explore theoretical ideas, then we’ll never develop any technology. Second, our focus of research is on the physics behind ideas, not specific technological designs of those ideas (at least as far as XP4 is concerned). For instance, nobody knows how to produce vast quantities of the negative energy necessary for warp drive. In time, that may come. For now, we’re taking the first baby steps that may lead us to future technologies. Whether fruition takes 2 years, 20 years, or 200 years is actually much less important than the argument that we must begin somewhere."