Mega Construction Project
We humans are builders. One of the ways we leave a
mark on the universe is by creating massive structures that show that some
opposable digits have been here. So when things get tough, like due to an
economic meltdown or a cascading environmental crisis, what can we do but
build?
Here are 10 massive engineering projects — some
pretty real, some quite fanciful — that could help turn our economic and
environmental crises around.
Master Plane
One more cool idea from the
Shimizu Corporation.a "masterplan" to place a belt of solar panels
along the moon's equator, spanning an awesome 11,000 miles in length. A power
conversion facility built on the moon (by robots!) would relay stored energy
back to Earth through microwaves, later reconverting them to electricity at a
power plant on Earth. Though only in the planning,
Shimizu's theoretical ring may ultimately suffer severe degradation from radiation and meteor showers, and technically no one is certain what the effects of such a massive beam of microwaves would
have on the environment and wildlife (possibly none), but the idea of a robot-manned lunar ring around the moon would be too cool (and beneficial!) to pass up.
Shimizu's theoretical ring may ultimately suffer severe degradation from radiation and meteor showers, and technically no one is certain what the effects of such a massive beam of microwaves would
have on the environment and wildlife (possibly none), but the idea of a robot-manned lunar ring around the moon would be too cool (and beneficial!) to pass up.
