Can we Build a Bishop Ring Space Habitat In This Century?

Imagine a future where humans will live in a habitable environment in space that is not the surface of a moon or a planet. Bishop ring space habitat was proposed as a megastructure that will provide a habitable environment to humans.

Futurist Forrest Bishop of the Institute of Atomic-Scale Engineering proposed the concept of Bishop ring space habitat in 1997. What is actually Bishop Ring Space Habitat? What technologies would the habitat require to operate? Can we build Bishop Ring Space Habitat in this century? Continue reading to find out.

What is Bishop Ring Space Habitat?

A Bishop Ring space habitat is a futuristic rotating space habitat that will offer a similar habitable environment to Earth, provide artificial gravity that will replicate Earth’s gravity, and enable its occupants to enjoy a suitable futuristic world outside our home planet.  

Forrest Bishop proposed this concept as a megastructure that would rotate to generate artificial gravity through centrifugal force. Unlike most proposed space habitats, the Bishop ring would be built with carbon nanotubes. The purpose of using carbon nanotubes is to make the structure stronger and give more room for its inhabitants.

Forrest Bishop named the concept after him and envisioned it to be built with an estimated measurement of about 1,000 km (620 mi) in radius and 500 km (310 mi) in width. The Bishop Ring will also be spacious enough to accommodate 3 million square kilometers (1.2 million square miles) of living space.

This massive living area of the space habitat can be compared to the land area of a country like Argentina.

How Will The Megastructure Be Built?

The Bishop Space Habitat will be constructed with nanotubes. Hence, the world needs to advance by making better nanotubes before space agencies will consider building a megastructure in space. Just like most space habitats, the core module of the megastructure will be built on Earth. After its construction, it will then be transported into space.

Since its size is so massive, the core module may be built in different parts and they will be joined together in space. Forrest Bishop suggests that the Bishop Ring space habitat would not require a roof because of its massive size.

Its atmosphere retention walls will be built to be approximately 200 kilometers (120 miles) in height. It will be maintained by artificial gravity created by the rotation wheel. The massive space habitat would be channeled in line with its axis of rotation.

This rotation axis would be constructed to be at the right angle to the plane of its unique orbit. The developers would include a strong space mirror on the outer rim of the habitat to reflect sunlight to the inner part of it.

The Sunlight can also be reflected in the middle of the habitat. Forrest Bishop proposed the idea of using solar energy to power the habitat. The solar energy would be obtained from the solar panels mounted on the outer rims and advanced solar power satellites orbiting around the habitat.

Can we Build a Bishop Ring Space Habitat In This Century?

The future of building Bishop Ring Space Habitat is still decades, if not centuries away. This is because most space agencies are currently focusing on building bases on the moon and Mars’ surface.

NASA, for example, is using most of its annual budget to finance its return crewed mission to the moon and commence a crewed mission to Mars afterward. Hence, leaving its already planned Artemis mission for the Bishop Space Habitat may not be possible soon.

So, even if any agency wants to build this futuristic space habitat, it may be a private aerospace company. Now, let’s say that a private space company takes up the responsibility of commencing with the project, they will likely be faced with several issues, including funding, the source for materials, lack of essential technologies to advance the construction in low Earth orbit, and other challenges.

Scientists and engineers across the globe are already researching how to improve the strength and durability of nanotubes. If the world advances enough by 2050, we will surely understand how to build stuff in space with nanotubes. Then we may likely construct a floating habitat like the Bishop Ring in space before 2100.

For now, most space agencies will be focusing most of their energies on returning humans to the moon and landing humans on Mars for the first time. If we attain these milestones before the 2050s, more agencies will emerge to channel their energy into building space habitats. The sole purpose of these constructions will be for space tourism and research purposes.