As part of our DSE Division, if we wish to occupy celestial bodies beyond the asteroid belt and star systems beyond ours, and eventually deep parts of the cosmos, we much have the technical and mental capability to first occupy the orbit of our own planet. The primary orbital space station for humanity right now is widely considered to be the International Space Station, or also called, as you probably know, the ISS. Though this huge space station (the size of a US football field) has been operational for decades and has hosted countless astronauts, its technology and appearance is embarrassingly old. Just look at some pictures below.
Wires everywhere, computers on the walls, no further explanation needed. This is not modern. Now we can have a look at China’s Tiangong Space Station. It certainly is not as modern as it could be, but it is a dramatic improvement from the space station, at least in terms of appearance.
Atmos aims to build, initially, dozens of space stations to be placed in the orbits of Earth, as well as Earth’s Moon. These space stations would be substantially more modern in terms of appearance and technical functionality as well as engineering, and would be much more efficient in virtually every aspect. It’s high time that humanity occupies the sphere of influence of its own planet.
Apollo 11 landed on the Moon in July of the year 1969. Do you know how far away that is? At present, the year is 2023. NASA landed people on the Moon nearly 54 years ago. If you asked someone at that time what Earth and space would look like in 2023, there’s a very good chance they would say that Earth would be covered with highly-futuristic cities, the Moon would have hundreds of human-occupied bases on it, maybe we would have reached Mars, and we would have space hotels around Earth. But guess what, we don’t even have a single one of those things. 53 years and we haven’t even remotely achieved a single one of those things.
No modern space stations, let alone Moon bases, let alone Mars bases. Atmos aims to change all of this, and we must start with occupying our surrounding region(s) in space if we seek to eventually occupy countless parts of the deep cosmos.
There are many questions raised by critics when the idea of humans permanently living in space comes up. Perhaps the most common concern is lack of gravity. When humans reside in environments with microgravity (for long periods of time), we suffer from bone and muscle loss, because those parts of the body are not being used as much, due to lack of gravity, a force usually pinning us down and forcing us to use the strength of our bones and muscles to fight it and complete daily tasks (walking, etc). Though this is a valid concern, artificial gravity, or, simulated gravity in space has been proven to work as intended. Astronauts in the Skylab Space Station (the first US space station) demonstrated this.
We strongly believe that every major concern regarding humans permanently living in space can be addressed in some way. And besides, if we would trust pessimistic people claiming that there will always be something preventing us from doing something, we would never advance.
It is unclear when Atmos would begin physical constructions of space station prototypes, but we do have the idea in mind. In the coming weeks, you can expect a brief technical document showing an overview of the space station idea, on Atmos.
We hope that the creation of these private space stations will inspire the general public to pursue careers in STEM, to become interested in the universe, physics, and space in general, to do things that will greatly and positively impact the human race, and much more.