Material for I-World:
Wall of I-World: The boundary wall of the I-World should have a leaf-like characteristic. All colonists (except the robots) need a limitless source of oxygen to support their life. A leaf-like wall will absorb part of the incoming solar light and convert it to oxygen. Also, since the I-World has a torus shape, a material that possesses high elasticity will prevent breakage due to high cyclic stress. Also, the wall should be super tough and durable to sustain any collision from meteorites. In addition, for security reason, unlike biological leaf, the material that makes up the wall should be half-transparent so that humans inside can view the space outside but aliens outside cannot. Finally, the wall also should be able to protect humans against the dangerous radiation of space without impairing the contact of the colonists with their environment.
Furniture: For mobility, all furniture in I-World should be made from material that is extremely light. Since furniture usually contain other objects within them or support other objects on their surface, the material that makes up all the furniture should be able to hold a weight that is much heavier than its own weight. Moreover, the material should be a good insulator. Currently, aerogel, which is transparent and consists of 99.38 percent air, could be a promise. Since its major composition is air, it’s extremely light to compare to other materials. Its density is less than 1 mg /cubic centimeter. However, it can hold 4,000 times its own weight without deformity (for instance, the brick below) and act as a heat barrier (protecting pens from a torch).
Robots:
Currently, robots are too heavy due to their hard, metallic body. This results in their lack of flexibility. However, robots in I-World should be entirely soft-bodied. Their skin should be much thinner and sensitive just like our skin so that they can “feel” as human beings do. Moreover, unlike human skin, robots’ skin should be destruction-protected from fire for example, so that it can work in extremely harsh condition. Scientists and engineers are putting efforts to design such an ideal skin. So far, there are 2 models. One possibility is using electrospun polymers:
Another even more high-tech skin is a flexible plastic covering that includes more than 1,000 fingernail-sized infrared sensors embedded all over its surface. The sensors detect an object and relay the signal to the robot’s “brain” The brain processes the information and applies reasoning within milliseconds, allowing the robot to react and move.
Since most of the I-World construction and maintenance tasks will be done by robots, robots’ arms that emulate those of human beings will speed up the process and, more importantly, help future robots perform complex work that current robots cannot. As a result, materials that make up an “artificial human-like arm” should possess some special qualities such as large actuation induction, sensitivity etc… The recent emergence of electroactive polymers (EAP) material with large displacement response changed the understanding of these materials and their potential capability. The most attractive feature of EAP is their ability to emulate biological muscles with a high degree of toughness, large actuation forces, and inherent vibration damping. Robots’ muscles made of this material will become more maneuverable.
Together with the arms, making artificial hands, which are sensitive and agile for robots, is also a challenge. Shape memory alloys (SMA), which is one of well-known smart materials, mimic human muscles and tendons very well. For example to create a single direction of movement (like the middle knuckle of our fingers) the setup shown in the figure below could be used. The bias spring shown in the upper portion of the finger would hold the finger straight, stretching the SMA wire, then the SMA wire on the bottom portion of the finger can be heated which will cause it to shorten bending the joint downwards. The heating takes place by running an electric current through the wire; the timing and magnitude of this current can be controlled through a computer interface used to manipulate the joint.
Industry: Initially, a "seed" factory will be “shipped” from Earth to the I-World. This factory will become material in order to replicate itself, or at least produce most of its own components, so that more and more its copies and mutants could grow very rapidly from a single seed. Below are the expected characteristics of a typical automated factory.
Response:
From code-work genome-cracking to the creation of super life forms in labs bypassing the Darwinian struggle for existence, the advent of the biotech revolution is already changing the way we perceive the living world. After millennia of small, incremental steps of discovery, humans are finally beginning to outsmart nature. With this perspective, there is a new generation of artists called “bioartists,” a new breed of creative visualists who utilize molecular biology as their medium for promoting a new form of "interactive art." These bioartists are playing with bacteria, mutating genes, splicing tissues, running their experiments to their ultimate absurdist conclusions. They are not making art about biology but focusing on bringing their artistic ideas to life. Moreover, they are determining what art will look like in the future. The exploration of the unknown is about human curiosity and this is something artists and scientists share.
Link:
http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/photo/aerogel.html
http://www.n-line.co.uk/2005/06/13/photo_in_the_news_ultra-lifelike_robot_debuts_in_japan/
http://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/everydaylife/vladskin.html
http://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/technologies/arm-022805.html