Science and Health

In The Future, You May Live In This Building Hanging From An Asteroid

A New York-based architecture firm has proposed "the world's tallest building ever."

In The Future, You May Live In This Building Hanging From An Asteroid
Clouds Architecture Office
SMS

It would be "the world's tallest building ever." It also wouldn't really be on this world.

Clouds Architecture Office has proposed the Analemma Tower, a skyscraper attached to an asteroid orbiting Earth and hanging down into our planet's atmosphere.

If that sounds far-fetched, it is — at least right now.

For one, any cable we have now would snap if it held the tower in place.

But the New York City-based design firm specializes in thought experiments, and some with the group argue the way the space and aerial technologies have been developing, suspended buildings are really an inevitability.

Here's how some parts of the building could work: Solar panels constantly exposed to the sun could power it. Water could be filtered from clouds and rain.

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Electro-magnetic elevators would move occupants across the massive skyscraper, from the office space at the bottom levels to the worship area toward the top.

Even getting an asteroid in the right orbit over Earth could happen one day, though that'd likely be NASA's doing.

The space agency has already proposed a mission to take a small part of an asteroid and have it orbit around the moon.

But living in Analemma may still be a little difficult. The residential area of the building is higher than Mount Everest, so with that comes little oxygen and temperatures around minus 35 degrees Fahrenheit.

And the asteroid would complete a figure-eight pattern every day at about 300 mph.

Which brings us to another concern: getting off and back up to the building. It seems like the firm is suggesting you parachute from the tower, which you could do from many points on the route.

But you'd only to be to get back on in New York City, where the figure-eight loop reaches its slowest point.

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One member of the firm told CNN he envisions passenger drones taking you up to the building, which is more technology that would need to be ironed out.

That said, if Analemma does become a reality one day, you might want to get on board. We don't know about you, but having a building like that hanging above you sounds more terrifying than being up that high.