The Asten concept (top picture), named after an Egyptian god said to direct the motion of heavenly bodies, was the recent winner of a NASA-sponsored competition. The brainchild of Eric Yam, a 12th grader at Toronto Northern Secondary School, Asten is impressive for its approach and detailed thinking - his pdf competition entry is no less than 93 pages long.
Eric built in part on the cancelled Transhab concept (middle picture). This was a modular structure that contained all the equipment needed for medium-term survival in space. Carried into space in package form, Transhab would have inflated to provide full-size orbital living accommodation.
Transhab made a good start, but Eric made a conceptual leap, to imagine a huge, mile-high (1.6 km) hollow cylinder consisting of strings of interconnected living modules (bottom), housing a population of 10,000 people. Earth-normal artificial gravity would be created by spinning the Asten, just like the ring-shaped stations of science fiction dreams.
Perhaps a weak point are the reasons given to build it in the first place, with justifications that have been around since the 1970s. These include: solar power export to Earth, a way-station to the Moon and beyond, a safe haven in case of massive planetary meteor strike.
Frankly, Starcruzer doesn’t buy these, as there are probably easier and cheaper solutions to be had. In fact, like anything to do with exploration and new frontiers, the real reason is probably nice and simple - “We’ll do it because we want to”.
So on that basis, well done Eric - Asten is a fantastic achievement.
You can download Asten information here.
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