Spherical space city? Sunglasses? The life of future astronauts is full of strange things

On May 30, payload specialist Gui Haichao flew to the space station, becoming my country's first astronaut to wear glasses. In fact, with the advancement of manned space technology, especially the gradual popularization of commercial space flight, space travel and space vacation are no longer a fantasy. Future space life is destined to be rich and colorful. What will it be like? At that time, what kind of strange clothes might space humans wear that are unimaginable to today's earthlings? Let's start from the future space city to find out.

The spherical space city is even more amazing

As the name implies, a space city is a city where humans will live in space in the future. Based on our existing technological foundation and the reasonable imagination in mainstream science fiction works, in the initial stage, the space city is likely to be made in the shape of a spoke. This is expected to create comfortable gravity through a rotating mechanism, and the cost will be relatively low. It can be considered an enlarged version of today's space station. In this structure, people mainly live in some "pipes" and "wheel spokes", but the field of vision is very narrow, and the body and mind are inevitably not comfortable enough, so this kind of space city is likely to be used only in the transition stage.

Future space cities are likely to be mainly ring-shaped and spherical

With the advancement of space construction technology, spherical space cities will eventually take center stage in aerospace. Simply put, it is a huge hollow sphere with an artificial sun suspended in the middle, which is made by controlled nuclear fusion and shines to every corner of the sphere.

In order to generate gravity, the spherical space city is also rotating constantly. However, unlike the spoke-shaped space city, the spherical space city always rotates around an axis running from north to south. The "equator" area with the fastest rotation speed has the greatest gravity. The gravity decreases linearly as the rotation radius decreases as you go to the north and south "poles". In particular, the north and south "poles" are almost completely weightless. Don't think that the weightless area is useless. It is expected that the "polar" area is particularly suitable for building thousand-story super buildings, and human daily work and residential areas and commercial areas will also be concentrated there. The experience area with moderate gravity, warmth and comfort will be used more as a resort and ecological area.

So what will human life be like in such a space city?

Sunglasses are essential

The most fascinating part of the future space city is of course the resort area. There are no skyscrapers there, but a quiet and harmonious ecosystem. Relying on controlled nuclear fusion for energy, air purification and continuous water supply are no problem, so the resort area is likely to be dotted with forests, lawns, flowers, birds, fish and insects, and appear full of vitality.

In addition, in order to provide people with sufficient water resources and a more comfortable experience, the spherical space city is expected to create an "equatorial sea". Standing on the beach, people can see the ring-shaped artificial ocean extending along the sphere to both sides, even across the sun and rising into the sky, which is magnificent and shocking.

However, the living environment here is different from that on Earth. For example, there should be no night, no sunrise or sunset, but always under the sun, so sun protection has become a problem that everyone must face. By then, you will find that everyone who goes out wears a pair of cute special sunglasses, the material must be further strengthened than the same kind on Earth, and the radiation protection performance is better.

Since there are no four seasons here, coats and padded jackets don't seem to be needed. But emergencies in space are hard to predict, so as strategic reserve materials to deal with emergency power outages, they are best kept at the bottom of the wardrobe.

A new generation of material structures and energy supply models are expected to create a space city with a beautiful interior environment

Dress nicely to avoid embarrassment

Although the resort is warm and comfortable, the space resources available to humans are limited after all, and it is difficult to build in gravity zones. Therefore, most people should stay near the "poles" and experience weightlessness.

Most clothes on Earth have been designed in a gravity environment, with tight tops and open bottoms, especially capes and skirts. But once these clothes encounter a weightless environment, they may not be so decent. Even if some researchers have imagined using fixing devices to keep these clothes in their Earth-like wearing form, it is difficult to avoid embarrassment - since there is no gravity, there is no absolute up and down in space, and your head and feet may face the eyes of different people at the same time...

At the "two poles" of the space city, all outerwear has a common requirement - full-circle closure, so as to achieve "360-degree impeccability". In addition to clothes, beauties' hair also faces the trouble of weightlessness. If you don't want your hair to be "messy in the wind" all the time, hairspray and hats will be essential tools.

Anti-collision suit helps flying

Once the new residents of Space City go out and go shopping, they will immediately discover new surprises.

In places with higher gravity, we walk close to the ground and control our speed and direction at any time under the influence of ground friction. However, things become interesting when we go to a shopping mall in a different gravity environment.

Obviously, it is impossible for a tall shopping mall to be built entirely in a gravity zone, so the goods will be suspended in the air to varying degrees, and most people will be the same, so customers can trade and stroll quickly - flying around has become the mainstream. However, it is difficult for people to find attachments at any time during the flight, and adjust the direction and speed of flight, so collisions become "commonplace". In order to ensure personal safety, shopping malls must not only provide cushioning in structural materials, but also remind customers to wear anti-collision suits.

Residents of future space cities will have to fly around

Similarly, every time people go out shopping, it is like a go-kart trip. Therefore, whether in the internal passages of buildings or in the relatively wide outdoors, it is essential for people to wear ranging and anti-collision equipment such as laser radar and infrared sensors, and to wear clothes with cushioning materials.

The "house" guest and the "gibbon"

In addition to the various "inconveniences", the weightless living environment also has its merits. For example, sleeping does not rely on a bed, and in a stable and mild temperature-controlled environment, there is no need to worry about wind and rain, so housing is no longer a necessity. In theory, a backpack may be all the belongings of a space resident, and you can pull out a radiation-proof temperature-controlled sleeping bag and "sleep on the street" freely.

But please note that a human body in a floating state is stationary relative to the center of the space city, while the surface of the resort with gravity is at a high speed relative to the center of the space city. If residents float from the weightless area to the resort, it is tantamount to crashing into a high-speed train. The danger is self-evident.

It seems that at least two devices should be added to the backpack. One is a rope to fix oneself to a building, and the other is a thrust vector device that can adjust its own speed in a floating state, similar to the backpack power equipment on the current extravehicular space suit.

Correspondingly, it is necessary to provide interfaces and "tickets" on the exterior walls of buildings to allow people to sleep safely. At certain times, the exterior of the buildings will show a scene like this: countless space city buildings seem to have tentacles, connecting countless sleeping bags. When people walk between these buildings, it is not suitable to fly up and bump into them. They often have to grab specific devices, like a gibbon wandering between branches.

The above are just a small part of the imagination about life in the space city. What will life in space be like in the future? I believe time will give us more surprises. (Author: Jiao Yi)