J A P L
The Philips Airoid Space Habitat

Colonize the Solar System
Protect Mankind

"Life is a Gift, and

In our Uncertain World,

The future is not Guaranteed,

However, if We Work Hard Together,

We have a Chance, and that is Reason for HOPE"

Imagine an asteroid that is modified to enhance its suitability for human colonization.

This is accomplished by erecting a scaffolding over the outer surface, and covering it with an impermeable membrane such as Mylar. Then, using material from the 'roid itself, layering rock rubble on top of the Mylar, and offsetting the weight with air pressure by introducing an atmosphere in the void created by the scaffolds.

Eventually the internal pressure can be brought to Earth atmosphere values y increaing the thickness of the rubble. The void between the trusses can be kilometers deep creating habitats on scales larger than O'Neill Cylinders. On a 100 km 'roid like the Antiope pair, the rubble needs to be approximately 1 km thick, providing thermal, mechanical, and radiation protection or the inhabitants.

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airoid Anchor 1

Outline: The Antiope “Airoid” Project to invigorate the next generation.

There exist two asteroids in the belt with exciting potential:

A double pair called 90 Antiope

They are about 60 miles each in diameter and about eighty miles apart.

They present an exhilarating opportunity for terra-forming into a colony habitat by the creation of an “Airoid” surface.

This will create a habitat with about ten thousand square miles of surface (ten times the size of the State of Rhode Island), 100,000 cubic miles of accessible volume (about ten to twenty thousand times the total volume of all buildings in USA), and an atmosphere ten miles deep. Because of the low gravitational gradient, the entire atmosphere would be essentially Earth’s sea level.

People would weigh less than a pound and be able to fly with the most rudimentary of wings. Advances in genetic engineering could create dragons and winged horses. A magic wonderland could be created. A video game based upon this location would have enormous real variations and possibilities.

Exploring true asteroids with this incredible potential would anchor the ownership and enthusiasm of the next generation. Their energies would be further focused with movies and video games based upon the reality of the Antiope Pair and colonization of the solar system.

An Airoid is created by erecting a scaffolding ten miles above the surface of the asteroid, and covering with mylar, sealing it in, similar to a Dyson sphere.

The outer surface is layered by rock rubble call rip-rap, and the weight of the riprap is offset by pressure of the sphere, which is increased as the thickness of the riprap increased during construction.

This solves the major failure mode of catastrophic rupture from space junk of the previously suggested O’Neill structures. The rubble thickness would end up between two and three kilometers in thickness, and could take and mitigate the shock and energies of most space rocks.

Universal HOPE

website under development

To whom might be reading this: Thank you for inquiring this far, the website is still being developed. As of March 2019 the outline of the thesis has been published, there remains thousands of pages of notes recording the justifications for the statements and claims made in the outline. They represent my life's work.

There is a significant amount of hubris contained in the overarching concept of this thesis; "We HOPE to save Mankind." . . .

But, although this is true, I do not believe I have encountered any human culture capable of taking us into the future, they are all flawed in some regard. And although I have some small adolescent bravado, I do not think I am a buffoon, a dangerous combination of arrogance and ignorance.

So, I push on, attempt to bring it all together, collate it, and communicate. I will raise the flag, and see if anyone salutes.

Something needs to be done, must be done.

These further pages of justification are incomplete, a mishmash that will, time allowing, be organized into a comprehensive, concise, even perhaps, eloquent transmission of ideas and solutions.

After the pebble is dropped, and the initial ripples reaching the shores of concerned people, the whole thesis will be deposited in one of the disciplinary repositories subject to the jury of the most august and informed bodies of wisdom, you.

Can it be done? In my lifetime, Hyman Rickover and Elon Musk, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, by their personal energies, have changed the world. Let's give it a try.

Below is a mess of notes. Sorry.

J A P L The Philips Airoid Space Habitat

Colonize the Solar SystemProtect Mankind