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Bernal sphere
Bernal sphere
Bernal sphere
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Exterior of a Bernal sphere
Interior of a Bernal sphere

A Bernal sphere is a type of space settlement intended as a long-term home for permanent residents, first proposed in 1929 by John Desmond Bernal.

Bernal's original proposal described a hollow non-rotating spherical shell 10 mi (16 km) in diameter, with a target population of 20,000 to 30,000 people. The Bernal sphere would be filled with air.[1]

O'Neill versions

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Island One

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Example layout for an Island One-type Bernal sphere

In a series of studies held at Stanford University in 1975 and 1976 with the purpose of speculating on designs for future space colonies, Dr. Gerard K. O'Neill proposed Island One, a modified Bernal sphere with a diameter of only 500 m (1,600 ft) rotating at 1.9 RPM to produce a full Earth artificial gravity at the sphere's equator. The result would be an interior landscape that would resemble a large valley running all the way around the equator of the sphere. Island One would be capable of providing living and recreation space for a population of approximately 10,000 people, with a "Crystal Palace" habitat (consisting of several rings attached to the sphere at each pole) used for agriculture. Sunlight was to be provided to the interior of the sphere using external mirrors to direct it in through large windows near the poles. The form of a sphere was chosen for its optimum ability to contain air pressure and its optimum mass-efficiency at providing radiation shielding.[2]

Island Two

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O'Neill envisioned the next generation of space habitat as a larger version of Island One. Island Two would be approximately 1800 meters in diameter, yielding an equatorial circumference of nearly six and a half kilometers (four miles). The size was driven by economics; the habitat was to be small enough to allow for efficient transportation within the habitat and large enough to support an efficient industrial base.[2]: 93 

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  • The inside of the sphere as viewed from the sunlight "portal"
    The inside of the sphere as viewed from the sunlight "portal"
  • Agricultural module of a Bernal sphere
    Agricultural module of a Bernal sphere
  • Exterior of a Bernal sphere
    Exterior of a Bernal sphere
  • A Bernal sphere next to a solar power satellite and an asteroid mining station
    A Bernal sphere next to a solar power satellite and an asteroid mining station
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  • The video game Sonic Adventure 2 features a fictional Bernal sphere space colony called "ARK". In this colony, Doctor Eggman's grandfather (The Professor Gerald Robotnik) created Shadow the Hedgehog to cure his granddaughter Maria's illness, but the Guardians Units of Nations (G.U.N.) considered Shadow as a threat, so they shut down the space colony and neutralized everyone who knew about Shadow, including Maria, who died trying to protect him. A mistranslation in the English dub of Sonic Adventure 2 has Tails incorrectly refer to the ARK as a "Bernoulli spherical space colony".
  • In the setting of the anime television series Mobile Suit Gundam 00, space colonies are based on underdeveloped technology, and only small-sized colonies, such as the Bernal sphere-shaped "Quanqiu" located in Lagrange 3, make an appearance.
  • In the anime television series Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ, the space colony Moon Moon is a Bernal sphere.
  • The video game Mass Effect features a fictional Bernal sphere space colony "Gagarin Station," named after Yuri Gagarin.

See also

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References

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Revisions and contributorsEdit on WikipediaRead on Wikipedia

Bernal sphere

View on Grokipedia
from Grokipedia
A Bernal sphere is a conceptual space habitat designed as a large, hollow to provide a self-contained, long-term living environment for humans in or space. First proposed by British scientist John Desmond Bernal in 1929, the original design envisioned a non-rotating structure approximately 16 kilometers (10 miles) in diameter, operating in microgravity and capable of sustaining 20,000 to 30,000 residents through integrated systems for , , and . Bernal's vision, detailed in his book The World, the Flesh and the Devil: An Enquiry into the Future of the Three Enemies of the Rational Soul, drew inspiration from biological forms like single-celled organisms, proposing the sphere as a permeable, layered enclosure built from lightweight materials derived from asteroids or planetary debris. The interior would feature reconfigurable spaces for habitation, farming, and industry, with an outer surface capturing and facilitating material exchange, all without relying on to emphasize human adaptation to space conditions. This design aimed to address on by enabling independent extraterrestrial communities that could evolve biologically and technologically. In the 1970s, physicist adapted and popularized the Bernal sphere concept through NASA's Summer Study on Space Settlements, introducing rotation to simulate Earth-like via . His "Island One" variant scaled the sphere down to a 500-meter , rotating at about 1.9 to generate at the inner surface, while supporting around 10,000 people with shielded living areas, agricultural belts, and mirrored windows for sunlight. These modifications influenced subsequent proposals, emphasizing construction from lunar or asteroidal resources and highlighting the Bernal sphere's role in feasible, scalable orbital habitats.

Historical Development

Proposal by John Desmond Bernal

John Desmond Bernal (1901–1971), an Irish-born physicist and pioneering crystallographer renowned for advancing X-ray diffraction techniques in the study of biological macromolecules, introduced the concept of the Bernal sphere in his seminal book The World, the Flesh, and the Devil: An Enquiry into the Future of the Three Enemies of the Rational Soul. As a professor at Birkbeck College, , Bernal explored futuristic scientific possibilities, framing the sphere as a radical solution to humanity's terrestrial constraints. The work, structured around philosophical and scientific challenges to rational progress, positioned space habitation as essential for overcoming Earth's physical and biological limitations. Bernal envisioned the habitat as a hollow approximately ten miles in , fabricated from ultra-lightweight molecular materials to minimize while maximizing . The structure would operate in a microgravity environment, capturing through a hard, transparent outer shell that retained atmospheric gases and withstood impacts via regenerative repair mechanisms. It would support 20,000 to 30,000 inhabitants in a dynamic population with ongoing exchanges to and from . Internal layouts included a subcutaneous layer for absorption—potentially using chlorophyll-like fluids or electrical systems—a quarter-mile-thick of storage for oxygen, water ice, and hydrocarbons, and mechanical controls for metabolic processes. The central offered expansive, gravity-free space for residences, industry, and controlled agriculture on the inner surface, eliminating the need for traditional buildings due to the absence of and uneven . Philosophically, Bernal's proposal addressed and resource scarcity on by enabling humanity's expansion into , where abundant and extraterrestrial materials could sustain growth indefinitely. He argued that such colonies would accelerate scientific progress by freeing researchers from planetary confines, allowing experimentation in microgravity and closed environments to drive innovations in and physics. Moreover, Bernal speculated on in these artificial worlds, where altered conditions might foster new physiological and social adaptations, transforming humanity into a spacefaring . The sphere's self-sustaining emphasized closed-loop resource cycling, with waste reconversion, synthetic food production via radiant energy, and assimilation of meteoric matter for expansion and , ensuring autonomy from . Bernal's textual descriptions vividly outlined the globe's operation: "Imagine a spherical shell ten miles or so in diameter, made of the lightest materials and mostly hollow; for this purpose the new molecular materials would be eminently suitable... The essential positive activity of the globe or colony would be in the development, growth and of the globe." This speculative laid the groundwork for later engineering concepts, such as Gerard K. O'Neill's adaptations in the 1970s.

NASA's 1970s Space Settlements Studies

In the mid-1970s, NASA sponsored a series of summer studies on space settlements, culminating in the 1975 Stanford/NASA Ames Research Center workshop, which explored large-scale orbital habitats as a means to expand human presence beyond Earth. These studies, directed by physicist Gerard K. O'Neill and co-directed by NASA engineer Richard D. Johnson, built directly on John Desmond Bernal's 1929 proposal for a spherical space colony, adapting it to contemporary engineering and materials science. The effort involved interdisciplinary teams of scientists, engineers, architects, and artists, focusing on designs that could support thousands of inhabitants using resources from the Moon and near-Earth asteroids. A central design examined was the Bernal sphere, envisioned as a rotating spherical habitat approximately 500 meters in diameter (radius of 250 meters), positioned at the Earth-Moon L5 Lagrange point to minimize fuel needs for station-keeping. This structure, known as Island One, would rotate at 1.9 revolutions per minute to generate 1g of artificial gravity along its inner surface via centrifugal force, with a total inner surface area of about 0.8 square kilometers supporting a population of 10,000. Agriculture would occur in external toroidal rings connected to the sphere, illuminated by sunlight redirected through large mirrors, while the habitat's interior featured a central zero-gravity hub for transportation and recreation, surrounded by layered living, working, and farming zones. Shielding against cosmic radiation and micrometeorites would rely on approximately 4.5 tons per square meter of lunar-derived regolith, emphasizing efficient use of non-terrestrial materials to reduce launch costs from Earth. The estimated total mass was around 2 million tons, including shielding. The studies assessed feasibility through detailed subsystems analysis, concluding that construction was technically viable within 20-30 years using lunar mass drivers for material transport and in-space manufacturing techniques. Economic justification tied the habitats to satellite solar power systems, projecting that such colonies could generate energy exports to . However, challenges such as psychological effects from enclosed environments—termed ""—and the need for closed-loop systems were highlighted, with social and political barriers deemed more significant than technical ones. Larger variants were also conceptualized but prioritized less due to scaling complexities. Visualizations by artists Rick Guidice and Don Davis, commissioned for the studies, depicted the Bernal sphere's interior as a verdant, park-like world with visible and opposite horizons, influencing public perception of space habitats. Ultimately, the workshop recommended the as a more practical initial design over the Bernal sphere, citing better sightlines and modularity, though the spherical concept informed subsequent research on shielding and habitat scaling. These findings, published in NASA's 1977 report Space Settlements: A Design Study, underscored the potential for self-sustaining colonies but emphasized the need for further R&D in and human factors.

Core Design Principles

Spherical Geometry and Rotation

The spherical geometry of the Bernal sphere maximizes the internal volume for a given surface area, thereby optimizing efficiency in and shielding. This design minimizes the mass required for enclosing the , which is essential given the high cost of launching materials into . The reduced surface area also enhances protection against cosmic and micrometeoroid impacts by concentrating shielding resources effectively. Bernal's original design was non-rotating, relying on microgravity. Later adaptations, such as O'Neill's, incorporated rotation about an axis through the sphere's poles to generate artificial gravity via centrifugal acceleration, simulating Earth's 1g environment on the inner surface. The magnitude of this acceleration aa depends on the distance rr from the rotation axis and the angular velocity ω\omega, according to the equation a=ω2r,a = \omega^2 r, where a≈9.81a \approx 9.81 m/s² for Earth-normal gravity and ω\omega is in radians per second. This centripetal force acts outward, pressing inhabitants against the curved interior to create a floor-like sensation. To achieve 1g while limiting physiological discomfort from Coriolis effects—such as perceived deflections in motion—a radius of approximately 250 meters (as in O'Neill's Island One) permits rotation rates of about 1.9 revolutions per minute (RPM). At these rates, Coriolis forces remain below thresholds that cause significant motion sickness or coordination issues for adapted residents. The rotation rate scales inversely with the square root of the radius to maintain constant aa, derived from rearranging the gravity equation as ω=a/r\omega = \sqrt{a / r}
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