The Bernal Sphere Space Habitat
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 10 ก.พ. 2025
- Discover the incredible engineering and visionary potential of Bernal Spheres, futuristic space habitats designed to sustain human life in the stars.
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Credits:
Megastructures: The Bernal Sphere
Episode 485; February 6, 2025
Written, Produced & Narrated by: Isaac Arthur
Editors: Ludwig Luska
Graphics: Bryan Versteeg, Fishy Tree, Jeremy Jozwik, Udo Schroeter
Select imagery/video supplied by Getty Images
Music Courtesy of Epidemic Sound epidemicsound.c...
Phase Shift, "Forest Night"
Chris Zabriskie, "Unfoldment, Revealment", "A New Day in a New Sector"
Stellardrone, "Billions and Billions"
For anyone wondering what happened there, the video this morning had flawed audio, not playing my voice in one of the speakers, which was rough on folks listening with headphones or earbuds. I missed it, and missed a note form one of our editors letting me know about it a few days back too, and when it did get reported this morning I tried some fixes while it was re-rendering and uploading, none were viable, and unfortunately, while the fix was very easy, videos of this size - 20 GB 4k/60fps - take hours to render, upload, and process, subtitles take even longer, which is why I usually upload weeks in advance :) In any event, sorry for the mess up, thanks for waiting, thanks for watching, and have a great week!
10/10
Hey Isaac, I'm the guy with one earbud from the last video. This one sounds much better, even with just one earbud. Keep up the stellar work soldier! 🫡
Hey, nobody is perfect. But damn, you get mighty close! Thanks for the inspiration, Mr Arthur! ❤
Thank you for the explanation. Would have naged me
Oh no, i thought Christmas came early this year and we got two episodes on one day! 😥
Hey TH-cam algorithm, this guy risked tanking his TH-cam analytics to fix a flaw in this video, and showed great dedication to his fanbase, please rate it more highly.
Careful, it's smart enough to know when you're poking it for attention.
I regret that I have but one like to give for the algorithm!
It reached me 🤷
gave the vid a thumbs up.
meds. now.
May the algorithm have mercy on this video. TY for re-uploading it fixed.
Does this mean we get a second drink and snack?
:) Always
Spaceballs, the documentary
Hahahaha!
There goes the neighborhood
Yes!!!!
@Yoel_Mizrachi I always wanted "Spaceballs 3: The Search for Spaceballs 2" Where nobody knows what's going on until they find the second Vhs.
Barf!!!
You're awesome Issac, thank you for fixing the audio! I'll happily rewatch the video.
Haven't gotten to watch it yet, as I'm at work, but I noticed the second upload and wanted to make sure I liked and commented to help the algorithm not hate the re-upload. On that note, I wanted to thank you for all the great content over the years! I've been watching every week for nearly a decade, and you've become such an integral part of my week. Don't forget to be awesome!
Everyone should like and comment to boost you in the algorithm, not to boost this video, but because you deserve it in every video. Thanks for what you do!
Reply reply activity activity ❤
ty for reuploading, I will give it a like and comment, hope the algorithm favors you!
Appreciate that!
@@isaacarthurSFIA thank you for fixing that. I tried listening to it for about 10 minutes and just couldn’t. So I will give you a like and a couple comments to hopefully boost the algorithm.
Thank you, Isaac.
I've noticed that he worked himself into an algorithm hole
And now with left earbud
lol, 🎉🎉🎉🎉
I 100%, seriously, for real just switched from the right to left earbud as I looked at this comment. Like I was already in the process of doing it when I saw it🤯
Me too lol
100% more sound per sound
“Not just survival, the possibility of thriving…” In this cosmos, Isaac Arthur’s optimism may carry us further than we know.
Commenting cuz I feel the need to boost this video, keep doing what you do!
I'm rewatching, liking and commenting to support SFIA doing the right thing and reuploading the repaired video.
Damn, there goes my hope of optimizing listening time by hearing this in my right ear, and Scott Manley's latest video in my left!
Thanks Isaac for another amazing video! I especially love the space habitat videos.
I love space habitats! I want to live in one
Thanks for reuploading it with fixed audio! even though I forced myself to watch the broken one
I don't think there's a reason to fear YT's algorithm for this video. We all know we'll rewatch it multiple times while falling asleep.
Thank you for the dedication to quality!
Wish I could thank you more!
i'll be honest. at this point futurism looks increasingly like an imminent dystopian nightmare .
^^THIS
wow, you're giving us the exact way to create a borg sphere
Here after the re-upload all your hard work payed off friends
Thanks
you're very welcome, I'm glad folks convinced me to reload it, I let myself get indecisive about what should have been a no brainer.
@isaacarthurSFIA it's a hard position to be in when your passion is your living in a very vicious system! But regardless I commit to supporting quality as it's the best way.
Always love your videos, keep it up !!
Oh boy! Isaac, I’ve been a little busy and haven’t had a chance to hear the last few shows but I will make time for this. Bravo!
I had to move to New England to discover why they said "snow" like it's a four letter word. There might after all be something to milder weather in a space colony.
Im glad that this video got remastered and reposted. Keep up the amazing work! 🎉
Eight hundred thousand and change, hole filled flying spaceships Isaac. Thank you for your dedication and effort.
welcome back to your second attempt. now the audio is perfect.
i liked your first upload already, so please have my like for your re-upload too - and i want to say sorry, because i might not stick around the entire video a second time at the same day.
If at first you dont succeed...
Glory to the fixed video, let the blessed ones lift it high into the feeds.
Always worth a re-watch. Now with even more content.
What happened to that comment from that one Jamaican Genius 🤔
I think the video was re-uploaded. His comment was by far the best thing I've read in a long while I'm still thinking about it now
@iamBirdbeak Broo same . That idea was mind boggling in the truest sense
Sadly I was about as distracted as I can get at the time so I remember it mostly as a chemistry and origin of life thought, and to make it worse, a video moved to private mode has comments disabled so I can't even seeing it myself now, and even flicking that video of to unlisted, assuming YT didn't eat all the comments, might be catastrophic to this video at the moment. Though I'll probably go dig it out in a few days if he doesn't repost and if it didn't get perma-killed
Who's that
Jamaican here
A video so nice I had to watch it twice! Oh, who am I kidding? I always watch Isaac’s videos at least twice.
Will be listening to this again as I go about my work later today.
Thank you for the re upload. Sounds good.
The sound...pure chefs kiss ♥
Thank you for reuploading!
Good job, mate. Keep up the good work!
always great to hear another video as I do stuff.
Nice, sound working well!
Nice. I like that idea of the extra shell. Good organizational tool and supplementary shielding.
Im back to give this updated version another view! Thanks for putting us first.
Take 2. I shall gladly give it another listen and like.
Thanks again friend.
Great video 🎉🎉 been looking forward to more habitat videos. Thank you!
Great vid as always, thanks for the fix
Fantastic video as always!
Comment for the algorithmic overloads to shine their mercy on this amazing video
An awesome video as always!
Be kind, algorithm!!! Love your stuff Every Week
We all appreciate your attention to sharing incredible factual details in your writing while maintaining high-quality production values. I wish the YT system was not so bloody annoying in how it judges channels.
Excellent video as always, many thanks mate.
What an intriguing mind you have, sir
it is always nice to see those pictures from our "Man from Ohio" again. Isaac could talk to us about any SFIA-Topic with just having a slideshow with such fotos in the background. this smile of him is always just nice to see.
Great video Issac, fell asleep to this earlier
That first upload was just a burner sphere. ;-P Awesome video as always!
During the narration about small asteroids mostly being rubble piles and how spinning them up would send debris flying off, it occurred to me that perhaps a large cylindrical/(Bernal) spherical structure could be built around an asteroid prior to the spin-up to catch the debris thereby lining the interior with material that could be then used to build the habitat. Of course asteroid regolith, like that from the moon, is probably very abrasive so surfaces exposed to the habitation areas would have to be smoothed somehow. How about a giant rock tumbler? We put some solid rocks inside the spinning structure then attach that structure to the end of an even larger spinning arm thing--maybe something like the spaceship in Project Hail Mary but WAY bigger--to provide an extra acceleration vector so big rocks tumble inside what will eventually be the space station thereby smoothing out the regolith. Wow, that was quite the flight of fancy.
I really, enjoyed this discussion. Made me go back and rewatch your Megastructure series where you covered Larry Niven's Ringworld.
Great stuff as usual.
Appreciate you watching!
i have been listening to your program on a podcast app. after the problem with the upload i searched you on here.
cool to put a face to a favorite show!
I appreciate the audio fix
May the algorithm show grace and mercy to this video. Professionalism and commitment to quality product should be rewarded, never punished!
A sphere and a cylinder are the same topologically. A torus differs, but all three can offer pretty much the same advantages. I suspect we might even find we start with a torus and then add another and another to get a cylinder.
I really enjoy your shows, thank you for all the work you do to make this happen.🖖👽
Thank you for the fix
Woo! spherical space ships and habitats!
Ever sense playing Ringworld and Return 2 Ringworld I've been interested in sphere shaped craft and some of these habitats look and sound awesome.
You should make a episode about time loops because i feel like ive been here before 🤔
Pity groundhoug day just passed :)
Given the original Bernal Sphere concept, I was surprised this didn't go into pantropy. Though if you can tolerate permanent zero-G, a sphere "wastes" a lot of volume and air, unless having lots of room to fly around in, with lots of perch points throughout the volume, is the point. The best aspect of a large Bernal sphere would be minimized mass per radiation-protected volume, but lighting it despite internal occlusion of the sunlight (dwellings and such scattered through the volume) might be a limiting factor for really big spheres. I guess if you limited the density of internal constructions, light would naturally scatter around, giving the interior a sort of 'translucent' appearance.
A bunch of smaller spheres side by side in a sheet - bubble-wrap habitats - might be a decent compromise - lots of volume, lots of light throughout, less air needed for a given amount of surfaces, assuming people still psychologically preferred that.
Commenting for thr algorithm. Go Isaac!
Great video!
I wonder if we will ever see any of this.
It seems that a smaller version of the Bernal Sphere will be the 1st actual artificial gravity station (at least as test type) since Think Orbital and Starship are happening.
Thanks for re-uploading
I have something I would love to see you create a video of because I am a big fan of your work. In the Troy Rising book series, he explained a space station made by filling a nickel metal asteroid with water, sealing the hole and heating. The metal softens from the heat and the water expands, creating a massive interior hollow about ten miles across once it cools. It had walls of nickel iron a quarter mile thick, protecting from micro meteorites and radiation. Spun up to produce gravity, it allowed for a massive living space that could shrug off nuclear weapons and sneered at normal space hazards. He used an Orion nuclear pulse drive to move it around the solar system and also to open a vast door cut into it in order to allow starships to dock with it internally for repair, safety and supplies. By using heat from the sun in orbital passes it seems to be something we could produce using current technologies, and be vastly simpler than an O'Neill cylinder or manmade station. Any chance you would e interested in covering this idea?
"something we could produce with current technologies" hahahahahhaa
@@Carnefice Didn't say it would be easy. It would be simple however, and does not need to be on the massive scale as in the book,. It would not require any new technologies, manufacturing plants for components like panels, girder electronics etc. and the few resources are already in space. The sun provides the heat, water is common, drilling a hole is drilling a hole, nickel iron asteroids are common and all you need is a powerful enough drive to push it. Doesn't need to be an Orion drive either if you are willing to sacrifice speed, which may not be desirable anyway in this context. Everything else is accurate calculations and math.
Let's go the other route instead of you just dismissing the idea out of hand. Name a reason we couldn't do this, or a necessary technology we do not currently have to accomplish this please.
This is the first time I've seen this video, I like all Isaac Arthur videos, and I want to see more!
Praise to Algarhythmo!
Well it was uploaded 2 hours ago
Great content
Random idea; have you seen Geo Girl's recent video about plate tectonics and lid tectonics? Long story short, she explains that Earth is very unusual in having active plate tectonics, and that this might be required for life because it facilitates a nutrient cycle.
I'm wondering if this would be a good addition to the Fermi Paradox series.
I've never thought of that last idea, at least in terms of space stations, but it makes sense.
I'd considered something similar for a spaceship, which now IA pointed it out is the same way cellular life works.
1. A hollow shell thick enough to defend from most impacts and keep loose debris from floating away.
2. A single anchoring pillar from one end of the shell to the other.
3. Engines, modules, etc. are either mounted to the inside or outside of the shell or the central pillar.
There is enough free space on the inside for tugs to move, repair, and replace the modules at will.
Nothing is so firmly attached with the shell that it can't be moved in order to make repairs on the shell.
A free floating drone or astronaut can inspect every single square inch of the vessel without needing to cut access holes.
At low tech/low economy, such a vessel would be too expensive to be practical, but since volume is cubed with radius and surface area is only squared, it becomes shockingly practical to add a little extra space at larger scales. (Especially since such a large vessel would have changing requirements and updated technologies throughout it's construction phase alone, much less it's entire life cycle.)
I very much appreciate the reupload.
Commenting for the algo.
When the tiers were discussed, I pictured terraces like the Incas had. After that, I thought you could get away with one tier/terrace that had a gentle slope from near one pole to the equatorial lake. Flowing down that slope would be a very long, lazy river, with high value real estate along one side.
Aaaaaand on the other half of the sphere, you put the rest of the water park with all the crazy, high-adrenaline waterslides you can imagine.
This is a habit in the same way Disney World is a city (or county). Such a place won't exist until there is enough disposable wealth that can reach it to make it profitable, but once that threshold is crossed, grab your swim trunks and space bikinis, because the Sun always shines in Waterworld.
The audio was fine for me, was a good episode..and I did see the TIE fighters
I hope your audio quality repair does not cost you anything vis-a-vis the algorithm. In any case it preserves your reputation and helps your viewers, who I expect are mostly forgiving like me.
Rewatching to support
Thanks for the video
Thanks Isaac!
Don't let Bernal Spheres morph into "Mega-Maid" and pinch planetary atmospheres, whatever you do!
Bless this video o great algorithm!
Fantastic as always!
Thanks!
Love videos on space habitats and that would be awesome to live on. Scyfy and space opera really have no scale of civilization and how big our stellar system is because having a series dealing with a civilization that is full of space habitats.
Thanks for re-upload
You bet
Yippie, back for stereo :D
This may as well be an arcology from Sim City 2000.
wonderful ideas
I joined the L5 Society when I was in high school, circa 1980 or so. I remember when I joined the Army and was getting a security clearance they asked me if I belonged to any political groups they should know about and I proudly said "L5 Society! I support space development!" Not to brag, but the Space Force is probably thanks to me. :)
…right
For some reason, cylinders seem like the way to go; they're structurally simple and the spin gravity is uniform. The biggest challenge would be directing sunlight in from the outside, but that's an issue with a spinning sphere as well.
Yeah I agree. The concerns about the caps being less structurally sound seem like a complete non issue to me, I don't know why he would even bring that up as if it mattered.
@@algorithmgeneratedanimegir1286 It shouldn't be too difficult to build a scale model in orbit, maybe just some fitted rings shipped up on a Starship or Falcon Heavy. Falcon Heavy's faring limits are:
Diameter: 5.2 meters (17.1 feet)
Height: 13.1 meters (43 feet)
So, maybe two 4m x 4m cylinder parts, to form a 4m diam cylinder 8m in height.
Attach, induce a spin, and get inside and test it. Of course it's far too small to be useful. The next step would be a 20m diameter structure, but I'm honestly not sure how you get a ring that size into space. Cut it in 1/4 segments then assemble with a spacewalk?
An object with a long center of mass, spinning around that long axis, is inherently unstable. It must always want to wander off the axis, and will move to tumbling.
Yes, you can design active stabilization, but a good engineer doesn't design in defiance of the laws of physics and then apply complexity to overcome the design flaws.
This is completely apart from pointing difficulty if it's not paired with a similar counter rotating object.
Relying on the pairing to overcome the actual instability is also not reliable / simple.
A dum-bel is stable, as is a Torus.
The Kalpana design is about as long by the axis as can be stable, not equal to the diameter. Making the outer rim more massive can help, but not by much.
I've always wondered if you could spin a Bernal sphere on multiple different axis at different rates to get nearly uniform gravity across the entire inner surface. That math is outside my capacity, but chatGPT says it could be done, and deviation across the surface can be reduced to about +/- 5%. " Single-axis spin → 0G at poles, full G at equator (bad uniformity). Two-axis spin → Reduces deviation to ~±10-15%. Three-axis spin → Can reduce deviation to ~±5% or better" Larger spheres can have even less deviation.
Rotation doesn't work like that, it has one axis. You could spin the axis so the rotation changes direction, a bit like a paint mixer, but it would have a similar effect on the contents.
Please don't use a text prediction system for maths, it exists to write what it thinks you want, not the details you're asking for.
If ChatGPT doesn’t know what you’re asking it will make something up, and since you gave it a question that’s just not possible it made something up.
@@thekaxmax Hmm interesting, now I'm reading about Euler's theorem. Well I'll have to ask ChatGPT as I have no infinitely patient companion with such a vast array of knowledge to ask, but rest assured I would get it validated properly before building any space stations should I ever find myself in that position. ChatGPT incidentally disagrees and says that Euler's theorem doesn't apply in this context because the 'single rotational axis' that describes the motion of all 3 axis is correct only for an infinitesimally small period of time, then shifts to a different axis and does so continually. The simulated gravity perception also shifts direction, but a large enough sphere and slow enough rotation puts that below the level or perception. The shift to a new axis can't be abruptly massive either as that would equate to a massive shift in angular momentum of the sphere, and the cumulative vector would always be almost directly radially outward. That makes some intuitive sense to me, but I have no idea and don't have the expertise, interesting though... Either way seems like it would be a difficult space station to dock with, and a rotating cylinder is good probably enough.
@IsaacArthurSFIA, have you thought about pitching a high-budget CGI series to Netflix or Prime?
Your narration over cinematic sci-fi visuals would be incredible-imagine megastructures, space colonization, and Type II+ civilizations brought to life with Hollywood-level CGI. It’d be like Cosmos meets The Expanse, but grounded in real science.
People would watch it over and over! If you ever push for this, you’d have massive support. 🚀🌌
Aw man. I want to live in one before I die. Not in another century. 😢
Now in stereo!
Welcome back, Left Ear Isaac. I was devastated by the possibility that something terrible happened to him. Glad to see that it was nothing but a bungled coup attempt by Right Ear Isaac.
Can someone explain to me please why B5 is a Bernal Sphere and not an O’Neal cylinder? Have always thought it was?