Introduction

For decades tens of billions of dollars have been invested worldwide to change deserts and semi arid regions into habitable environments for people. Agriculture blossoms in the driest areas of the planet due to the advancement of technology. This project is about looking into the next great step of what a planetary scientist would call terraforming. Humanity has progressively moved out of the more easily livable areas of the planet and in doing so has been slowly terraforming the Earth in small increments for millennia.

      This study focuses more on desert habitat, to begin, because of the impact and success that living in the desert as had. The technology can easily be expanded to include not only the cold arid poles of this planet but the hostile environments of other planetary bodies both in and outside of the solar system. Also variations of the same technologies can be brought to bear on the environments that are not so inherently hostile; for instance Buckminster Fuller proposed some years ago that a dome over New York city would greatly reduce the costs of heating the city in the winter.

Biospherics

Biospherics as to do with completely self contained systems regarding materials: chemistry bio chemistry etc, with the importation of energy, usually solar. The desert dome as proposed here is not about creating a completely self contained system, like for example, a domed over city or colony on another planet or a moon. It's about altering a relatively small space on Earth to create a more efficient environment for inhabitants. An example of the desert dome not being an enclosed system is that the bottom of the dome would probably be open. Another example would be that water would be added to the semi closed system via the hydrogen fuels burned inside the dome, venting of excess water will occur as the system will produce prodigious amounts of water in the process of generating power. The dome in this case is used to contain and control water, since in the desert water is by far the most important ingredient to biological success.

Water

Water is essential for living things on the planet. The control of water and it's supply, especially in the American Southwest, is a technological marvel in itself. Some of water's great attributes is that at sea level it can be solid, liquid or gas, it can hold and transfer huge amounts of thermal energy, water is easily moveable in liquid form and for our consideration here it can be used as a source for Hydrogen; the cleanest burning fuel.

Domes

Domes enclose the most space relative to surface area of any structure. Since the inventor philosopher R. Buckminster Fuller began his research into habitats for humans in the late 1920's, and created the geodesic dome in the 1940's, many domes have been built. Theoretically domes, constructed using Fuller's geodesic mathematics, can be built of any size and shape. Size is most important here since this project suggests multi mile diameter domes.

Desert Dome Proposal

The proposed dome would be constructed of Carbon nano tube fibers with nano computers inside the nano tubes. Nano tubes are sometimes referred to has Bucky tubes, they are elongated Buckministerfullerenes. A fabric would be weaved using the nanotubes. One way the dome could grow would be nano robots would create the tubes including weaving the fabric on the spot. As the nano robots construct the dome they also construct millions of solar powered nano sized pumps that would inflate the dome as it is being constructed. The size of the dome would then be controlled by a computer program. As the dome is being built programs would be initiated that would make the dome smarter and more sophisticated, i.e. the integration of the crystals that eventually would generate electricity from the movement of the fabric.
The main function of the nano computer system would be carrying out the gathering of information; such as temperature pressures etc. There are other functions that the nano computer system can perform as well, as we will see below. The ten mile diameter skin structure would be invisible from the inside and from the outside, at a distance. The membrane could be designed to allow gases such has Oxygen and Nitrogen to pass through but would not allow water molecules to pass through. The dome's membrane could act as a solar cell and also to block harmful cancer causing ultraviolet radiation. Also infrared radiation blocking could be integrated into the skin the same as Copper coated glass is used in buildings now to reflect infrared (Heat) radiation away from a building, in order to cool the building. Or the infrared and the ultraviolet radiations instead of being reflected away from the dome could be transformed selectively via photovoltaics directly into electricity. Yet another way to derive electrical power would be to integrate a solid state crystal called a piezo electric crystal into the Bucky tube structure to transform any thermal or wind induced motion of the dome directly into electricity which would also serve to dampen unwanted motion.

Similitude and Gigantathermea in large structures

Galileo's principle of Similitude plays an important role in the thermal control of any large dome, or any large structure for that matter. Just as Gigantathermea plays a role in maintaining a higher than usual temperature in a cold blooded leather back turtle because of it's large size, similitude will play an important role in maintaining a higher than expected temperature in a large dome. In a desert setting this higher than expected temperature will be offset by reflecting or transforming into electricity the incoming solar infrared energy. For a large dome in deep space, on the other hand, or at a latitude close to the poles of a planet similitude will maintain a higher temperature inside the dome also, aerogel could be incorporated into the structure to keep the dome warm.

Hydrogen production

Sea water would be distilled using solar, wind, nuclear or even tidal energy. Solar cell powered Hydrogen-Oxygen "crackers" would split the water molecules then the Hydrogen would be concentrated into liquid form for pipeline transport to the dome. Fuel cells seem to promise the best and most efficient way to burn Hydrogen, with efficiency ranges up to 70%. Some Hydrogen may even be produced inside the dome; there as been discovered recently an enzyme found in soil that produces Hydrogen. The Hydrogen could then be used as a fuel. It should be noted that even the harshest desert soil will, and in this case, can not help but become very biologically active due to the abundance of water that the dome will provide. Also what should be noted is that the problem of salt build up from the irrigation of arid desert land will be greatly reduced because not only will evaporation be greatly reduced but a lot of the water will be recycled naturally. The desert sand will become soil, agriculturally, very rich soil. The burning of Hydrogen creates water. The water captured from stationary power plants; ones used at hospitals for example, would be potable drinking water and used as such. And the water vapor created by non stationary power plants i.e. trucks cars etc. would then alter the climate inside the dome so that instead of the humidity being about 1 to 10 percent at a temperature of around 130 degrees, in the summer; it would be a more comfortable and healthier 30 to 40 percent at a year round temperature; due to the skin of the domes ability to control the inlet of thermal radiation, of about 72 degrees. All in all a dome of this design could itself become an energy exporter.

A note concerning the burning of regular fuels inside the dome

The burning of pure Hydrogen creates essentially water and some Nitrogen compounds. The minute quantities of Nitrogen compounds are created when the atmosphere is used as the oxygen source (78% of the atmosphere is Nitrogen). For instance the Hydrogen burning fuel cells on humaned space craft use a pure Oxygen source, ergo no Nitrogen compounds are created. The preferred fuel used inside the dome will be pure Hydrogen, but other fuels can be used to some extend. Nitrogen filters could be used to filter out the Nitrogen prior to it's use in the fuel cells or even in internal combustion engines for that matter; or the resulting Nitrogen compounds could be removed by the dome itself with a nano skin filtration system. The burning of what's usually used for automobiles 'gasoline' creates Carbon compounds (Carbon dioxide and Carbon monoxide) along with some Nitrogen compounds and of course water. The Carbon and the small amounts of Nitrogen compounds along with being taken up in the process of plant growth, could be used in the dome structure itself and utilized by the nano robots to create Carbon based products (Plastics) The nano tubes themselves that constitute the structure of the dome will be made entirely of Carbon. The nano tubes will be programmed by the entire net of the dome to repair themselves. N.A.S.A. has already begun research into this technology called active materials or "swarms". The Carbon in the air can be used by the nano robots to repair the nano tubes, but also the nano robots will be programmable so as be able to build other structures. In essence the dome would be able to be programmed to manufacture other products other than the stuff needed to carry out self repair. A dome on Mars for example could be built using the Carbon extracted from the Carbon dioxide that makes up about 95% of the Martian atmosphere. The Oxygen that will be left from the extraction will have obvious uses inside the dome for human, plant and aquatic life support.

A candidate location

A location near the city of Tucson located in the United States southwest is a good candidate for study. Tucson has been, and still is, growing quite rapidly, but it's water supply isn't. The population is at about 750,000 inhabitants as of this writing and by 2025 it could be as much as 1,000,000. Tucson is at the far end of the biggest and only supply of water in the southwest United States, the Colorado River. The Colorado river isn't by any stretch, off setting, the water that is being pumped out of the underground aquifer that for so long supplied, the up until recently, few inhabitants of the area.

      Aside from the technological challenge of constructing a multi mile diameter structure, research needs to be carried out in discovering what would happen inside a large dome. For instance, would the dome create it's own weather? For a dome such as this the containment of water is very important in that sense it is a closed system. More than likely a research dome will be constructed away from any urban areas for the purpose of gathering information with a possible side effect of supporting some commercial farming. It wouldn't take long though for a community to grow up around, and in, such a dome especially in a developing country.