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So, I'm out of school for the summer. Next year I return to a new building as a Senior. It's almost scary, to be so close to the Real World and yet so far away. I have my plans for my senior project, and an idea. I want to build Project Artemis- that's the name I gave my theoretical space station. I feel silly, even though I'm quite possible the most intelligent student in the school (it's hard to tell, seeing as I flunked out of ninth grade and struggled my way through tenth, my class ranking is dreadful). If my SAT and WASL scores are any indication, though, I have the ability to be an astronautical engineer.
You see, the idea for Artemis space station is to have a truly commercial space station that operates on centrifugal force to generate a gravity as close to earth's as possible. This design has been seen in various Sci-Fi movies and is, indeed, nothing new. However, the problem lies in how delicate such a system would be. Everything would need perfect mathematics to calculate velocity, and even a slight shift in the rotation could doom the station.
Hence why thus far we have not seen such a thing. I dare say it is a rather racy idea to believe that the space station could be so easily manipulated by external force it becomes difficult pill to swallow.
Then there's the living system. Artemis would be large enough to use house a city, preferably. The select few that a one hundred person stations would require is rather... non-commercial. So, to support such a system, I'd want the city to be ran on electricity that is generated from a core in the center. Here's the thing, the balance would have to be such that the speed of the space station would cause the generator to produce enough electricity to support it's size, but it's size is dependent on the force of gravity (to simulate an environment as close to earth as possible). Therefore, my knowledge of calculus is needed to optimize the size of the space station. That would then become a fair standard.
Back to the living systems. A good section of the station would need to be adopted for tree and plant life in order to recycle air. Human waste would need to be processed back to drinking water, the extra then becoming fertilizer for the plants needed to support the station. Of course, this assumes that we be able to even grow plants in space, which requires the ultraviolet of the sun (perhaps we can use solar panels to power our greenhouse.
As it is blisteringly cold in space, energy would also need to be conserved for heat. A good insulation is necessary in the walls.
All things considered, the designing of Artemis will prove to be complex (beyond what has been barely touched in my post) and beyond the scope of a normal high schooler. I look forward to the challenge of my lifelong dream, coming true. Perhaps, if I do well enough, I can impress someone. I want to be great, like all people naturally desire, and I want to do what I love.
~Lockea~
 Lockea · Fri Jun 15, 2007 @ 07:49pm · 2 Comments |
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