Overview

This post proposes a design for a pneumatic structure that creates a container that provides efficient climate control for the volume that it covers. This design is specifically performant at scale.

Initially inspired by designs of human habitats on Mars, I am curious to see if it has commercial viability on Earth. Potential use cases range from agriculture to space exploration.

The core advantage of pneumatic structures is that they are lightweight, cheap, and easy to deploy per unit of space enclosed versus alternatives.

Motivation

Climate Change

As climate change produces more extreme weather patterns and more extreme natural disasters, the places where humans grow food and live are under threat.

Agriculture:

Increased weather volatility threatens growing seasons as early frosts or late rains can destroy harvests, leading to food insecurity.
Inefficient use of arable land due to longer growing seasons in otherwise resource-constrained areas.
Decrease in arable land due to too hot or too cold weather patterns.

Habitability:

Extreme heat and wet bulb temperatures make it dangerous to go outside in more places during the summer.
Extreme cold makes it dangerous to go outside in more places during the winter.

Abundance

Even if climate change were not an issue, being able to control large volumes of area is an awesome future. Imagine bringing the weather of San Diego, California, during the summer to Cheyenne, Wyoming, during the winter.

A plurality of the exodus from T1 cities during Covid fled to the South and Sunbelt. Cold cities, even with good urbanism, business-friendly laws, and affordable housing, struggle to attract talent because people hate living in long, cold winters. Large-scale climate control offers a solution.

Beyond human habitats on Earth, there are other potential use cases for pneumatic structures:

Mars/Lunar colonization
1. The original inspiration: https://caseyhandmer.wordpress.com/2019/11/28/domes-are-very-over-rated/.
Reducing Resource shortage
1. Increasing the amount of habitable and arable land.
Creating pollution-free spaces in Asian cities.
1. https://orproject.com/bubbles/
Cheap, ISS-type space centers.
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inflatable_space_habitat#:~:text=Inflatable habitats or expandable habitats, internal volume increases after launch.

Solution

Thoughts and numbers here are heavily influenced by Nick Parker and his work here: https://nickparker...

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