Terraforming Ceres
Humanity could really use some permanent bases in space. Making one on the Moon is practically given, Mars will most likely happen as well. What where should we go then?
Image by Reimund Bertrams from Pixabay
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When we dream of conquering the Universe we usually think of terraforming planets that are mostly similar to Earth. In our solar system, this is mostly the case with Mars and if you’re a really big dreamer then perhaps also Venus. Though, most likely our first permanent base in space will be on the Moon just because it is the closest. But there are many other places in our solar system that we could use in some way.
Pekka Janhunen from the University of Tartu in Estonia came up with a nice way we could create a permanent human settlement near the dwarf planet Ceres that rules the main belt of objects between Mars and Jupiter. If you are at least a bit into sci-fi then you probably see the inspiration coming from the books and tv-series The Expanse as a prominent role in it is played by the Ceres Station with its 6 million inhabitants. In the books and tv-series Ceres Station is built on the surface and inside the dwarf planet that had its rotation artificially sped up to great spin gravity.
Janhunen is convinced that Ceres could be prime real estate even in reality. There’s nitrogen there that could allow us to create an Earth’s like atmosphere. Perhaps it could even be a better place to live than Earth itself as the dwarf planet doesn’t come with many of the risks our planet naturally has. Though, it does come with its own unique risks.
Janhunen proposes we put small satellites in orbit of the dwarf planet that would then connect to create a massive disk-shaped mega-satellite. This satellite could have its own spin-gravity by rotating around the dwarf planet and each of the rotations would take just 66 seconds creating spin-gravity similar to Earth’s gravity.
People would travel maglev trains that would be near the center to allow them to function in zero-gravity. A good public transport system would be needed as the author presumes a population density of roughly 500 people per kilometer square. Yet, that’s is relatively population density equal roughly to current New Jersey.
The mega-satellite would have to be built from local resources. But too low gravity and a relatively fast rotation it should be somewhat easy to connect the mega-satellite with the surface of the dwarf planet using a space-elevator. That would allow us to easily take material from and to the surface and back without the need to use a lot of fuel.
On top of that, massive mirrors would protect the colony from small meteorites while also concentrating sun-light for solar energy and to feed the plants.
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