The Birth of Artificial Planet

Wow… An artificial planet? Now, that’s as if I announced pigs can really fly! People would give me really weird looks… That's for sure!  Creating an artificial planet would require a HUGE amount of man work, technology and definitely brains. But many science fiction shows, movies and books have introduced this topic many, many times, but as our world goes through many significant changes in advanced society, can we really make this once told story into reality? 

Creating a replica planet is a type of proposed stellar megastructure. Making sure it has sufficient mass that is able to generate its own gravity field which is strong enough to prevent the atmosphere from escaping which is difficult and hard to regulate without having a self-sufficient ecosystem.

Creating an Artificial Planet:

Mark Hempsell, a british aerospace engineer and CEO of Hempsell Astronautics, suggested that creating an artificial planet could be created in a solar system that is prepared for future colonization such as being placed in a habitable zone between orbits like Venus and Mars. They would evolve from the construction of a smaller site to other large scale megastructures that are intended for living spaces, such as the O'Neill cylinder. An artificial planet should be large in size inorder to hold its own gravity field; this would help to prevent the atmosphere from escaping and protect against radiation or meteorites. But, an artificial planet would have mass that could have a usable surface area ratio.

Materials:

Construction materials for artificial planets would be extracted from gas giants or asteroid mining that have properties of a sustainable planet. A more advanced society could use the materials to create a mass production of minerals that would help lead to a better artificial planet. 

Considering a habitable zone?

In order to build an artificially built planet, we would need the right position for it in space. This means we need an orbit for the artificially built planet should be right for temperatures to be livable. Considering that if that planet is too close to the sun, we would be burned and roasted by the star’s radiant light, but if we are too far away that would result in our planet being in a cold and deep freeze state. Including the fact that if we are creating a livable environment, necessities like the supplies of liquid (water), since there is no possible life without water.

Ideal Space Stations

Building a spherical space station should resemble properties like planet Earth. The Death Star shown in Star Wars IV: A New Hope, had a diameter of almost 75 miles, which is large! This would be the biggest space station ever built, but in reality, our largest space station is less than 0.1 miles. But, if you compare a station like that to Earth’s diameter (7900-mile), it would look like a dwarf. However, we will still use the 75 miles plan . 

If we create our artificial planet-like space station primarily from steel, then around one quadrillion ton of steel would be needed to complete the planet. Unfortunately, with our technology it would require almost 800,000 years to create the required amount of steel. In the present day, we have about 1.8 billion tons of steel manufactured around the globe. 

Another way to collect stronger and better quality materials is to mine asteroids or even explore the Moon’s materials.

Creating A Civilized Place To Live Requires Workers!

Now, as we have collected enough information about using raw materials, we would require advanced AI or robots that are capable of working in microgravity and help build our ideal habitable place. 

Building such a place would need advancements including earth-like gravity since our bodies can have an impact in the absence of gravity. An example of an astronaut would often deal with bone mass loss, low blood pressure, and other health issues regarding the absences of gravity are often attributed to microgravity. 

Making a planet that resembles the Death Star is a nice idea but to compare with the flawless abilities it has requires a lot of maintenance and work of keeping it stable in reality. 

Planetary Replica:

As mentioned earlier, Hempsell opines that it is not necessary to fully attribute to the same properties of Earth, including its size. Making a smaller replica of Earth is fine and easier to maintain since to achieve the equivalent of Earth’s gravity requires a large amount of man work and advanced technology. Earth’s mass is 5842 quintillion tons and the Moon’s diameter is 2159 miles long. As the numbers show, there would be alot of rock to be brought on, but Hempsell suggests engineers could mimic nature’s own ways of making a planet.

Nature's Own Ways: 

Hempsell suggests that building an advanced fusion facility near the sun would benefit them. How, you ask? Creating heavy materials that are required for the completion of a new terrestrial planet could be procured by placing an advancement near the sun. Desner elements such as osmium, iridium, and platinum are strong choices for construction materials ,according to Hempsell. Layering the heavier elements on top of each other would allow them to slowly be processed and cool.

But, to provide these elements, humans have to do thermonuclear explosions of supernovae. Even if we use this process of building the planet, it would still take thousands of years using this method, according to Hempsell. 

There Is A Better Alternative:

These ideas are truly fascinating but a more achievable option – colonizing planets/moons by terraforming. If we use terraforming, we don’t have to go through the process of building a planet from scratch. All we have to do is manipulate an existing moon/planet to make their surroundings into a more habitual place for life to colonize gradually. For example, using nuclear detonation on Mars can warm the climate of the planet, and then we could use techniques on how to envelope the planet’s atmosphere to Earth.