The Very Large Structure (VLS) is described as a 600-ft-tall "city on wheels" that would remain in almost constant motion as it rolled over the countryside.
Delhi-based architects are promoting plans to build vast bubble-like enclosures to create urban havens in environmentally challenging cities such as the Indian capital and Beijing, China.
The first thing to understand about space elevators is that, in principle, they should work.“A space elevator appears feasible, with the realization that risks must be mitigated through technological progress,” concludes the International Academy of Astronautics in a peer reviewed feasibility assessment with 41 contributors published late last year.
A London designer looking to transform polluted cities into enclosed environmental havens could have used the more proven geodesic dome as its technology.
Image Courtesy of InterBering LLC The proposed 64-mile long tunnel would intersect with two islands to allow for ventilation and construction access. Related Links: Dream Projects Dream Projects Test New Realities A rail crossing of the 51-mile-wide Bering Strait between Alaska and Russia is certainly not a new dream project—the idea dates back as far as the late 1800s. Since then, numerous railroad magnates, engineers and even heads of state have proposed bridge and tunnel schemes to link the Asian and North American continents. In recent years, a tunnel running underneath the 161-ft-deep channel has been the preferred option. In 2011,
Photo Courtesy of NASA Space-station-bound rocket exploded after launch, but pad is intact. Related Links: Orbital Sciences Corp. VIDEO: Antares explosion The explosion of an unmanned rocket carrying cargo to the International Space Station (ISS) on Oct. 28 has once again put the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's privatization program in the spotlight.Within seconds of liftoff, the first stage of Oribital Sciences Corp.'s Antares rocket self-destructed, scattering debris across the southern end of Wallops Island, Va. The Virginia Commercial Spaceflight Authority leases a flight facility from the National Aeronautical and Space Administration. Most of the debris fell within an 8,500-ft
Photo Courtesy of WAR Construction Inc. The city of Northport's Fire Station No. 3 was built by WAR Construction in 2009. The team used several ConsensusDocs contracts on the project. Related Links: Improved Digital Practice Documents Beware of Hidden Risks Buried in Contract Language Since its introduction in September 2007, the ConsensusDocs movement has struggled to become a serious contender in the arena of standardized design and construction forms. Developed by a coalition of more than 40 industry groups, ConsensusDocs—a catalog of 100-plus standardized contract documents—set out to become the industry standard, but early software challenges and other criticisms thwarted
Image Courtesy of ESA/Foster + Partners The European-designed lunar shelter is printed with rubble and binding agent. Related Links: Foster + Partners Space Shelter Design 3D Concrete Printing at Loughborough University in the U.K. Concrete printing in 3D has a future in the near term, with commercial applications coming in a couple of years, predict researchers in the U.K.Richard Buswell, senior lecturer in building-services engineering at Loughborough University, spent four years on a team developing a computer-controlled process for producing complicated concrete elements not possible by traditional means. The $2-million project, completed in 2011, produced a series of 1-meter-sq, curved