Space megastructures

Artist ~ glabool

Part of the "Megastructures: The Visual Encyclopedia" book project, on sale now at http://www.neilblevins.com/projects/megastructures/megastructures.htm The original Bernal Sphere (proposed by John Desmond Bernal in 1929) is a space colony that would serve as a residential area for a space manufacturing plant. The residents would be found within the spherical portion of the hollow orbiting space station. The outside of the shell would be dense enough to shield the people from cosmic rays and…

Lately I've decided to make a remake of one of the very first pieces that started my Space That Never Was project (I think you can guess which one ;)), a bit over 4 years ago. Time flies fast. And there's also a little bonus GIF. Based on comments for the previous one, most of you really wanted it to happen. http://spacethatneverwas.tumblr.com

Part of the "Megastructures: The Visual Encyclopedia" book project, on sale now at http://www.neilblevins.com/projects/megastructures/megastructures.htm A Shellworld would be an artificial planet made up of nested spheres, like a Russian Matryoshka doll. Each sphere would be called a shell, or level, like a floor in an enormous skyscraper. Shellworlds could have a single layer, or dozens of layers. The shells would be held up by enormous towers, which could also serve as elevators for…

Part of the "Megastructures: The Visual Encyclopedia" book project, on sale now at http://www.neilblevins.com/projects/megastructures/megastructures.htm A gas giant refinery is a series of structures that would be suspended in the atmosphere of any gas giant such as Jupiter or Saturn, their purpose would be to harvest large amount of hydrogen / helium or other gases from the planet to prepare the raw elements for transportation elsewhere.

Part of the "Megastructures: The Visual Encyclopedia" book project, on sale now at http://www.neilblevins.com/projects/megastructures/megastructures.htm An Orbital Ring would be an artificial, ring-shaped structure placed around the Earth just above the atmosphere (at 100 km). The structure would contain two rings. The inner ring would rotate at an angular rate slightly faster than the rotation of the Earth, and would have a current running through it. Then, a second ring would be created…