TWIN SPHERES ARSOS & AZIZOS: TERRAFORMING AN ASTEROID
What happens when we send life to prepare a world we may never reach?
Arsus and Azizos are twin habitats deployed to terraform the asteroid Tep Zepi. They carry compressed packages of water, soil, algae, cyanobacteria – the ingredients for a world. Their resident robots, Aker-point and Aker-zero, shuttle “seed soup” from the spheres to the asteroid surface in an endless cycle of deposition.
The names are not accidental. Aker is the Egyptian guardian of the horizon, the threshold between worlds. These machines are threshold-crossers, carrying life from one state to another. The question they pose: what is our obligation to futures we set in motion but cannot control?
THE SPHERES USE A LASER TETHER TO FOR A PERMANENT LINK TO EACH OTHER. WITH TEP ZEPI AT THE AXIS, THEY SIMULATE GRAVITY THROUGH CENTRIPEDAL FORCE. THE PULL OF GRAVITYUNPACKS THE HABITAT INSIDE EACH SPHERE.
THE TWINS ARE SPHERES CALLED ARSUS AND AZIZOS. THEY HAVE BEEN DEPLOYED ON A MISSION TO TERRAFORM THE ASTEROID TEP ZEPI.
THE TWINS ARRIVE TO THE ASTEROID WITH A COMPRESSED PACKAGE CONTAINING WATER, SOIL, ALGAE, CYANOBACTERIA, PHYTOPLANKTON AND OTHER PLANT MATTER.
WHILE LIFE MATURES INSIDE THE TWIN SPHERES, THEY ATTEND TO THE TASK OF PREPARING THE ASTEROID.
LASER COOLING IS APPLIED TO TEP ZEPI TO GRADUALLY DECREASE THE ASTEROID ROTATION SPEED: AND THEREBY REDUCE CENTRIFUGAL FORCE ON THE ASTEROID, THEREBY TO ENSURE SUCCESSFUL DEPOSITION OF “SEED SOUP” TO THE ASTEROID SURFACE.
Each twin has a resident robot. Aker-point is stationed on Asus; Aker-zero is stationed on Azizo.
FROM THE SURFACE OF TEP ZEPI, AKER-POINT AND AKER-ZERO, EACH REMOVE A SCOOP OF ASTEROID SOIL AND FILL THE RESULTING DIVOT WITH BOG SOUP. THE BOTS RETURN TO THE BOGS ON THEIR RESPECTIVE SPHERES TO DEPOSIT THE ASTEROID SOIL. THE BOTS REPEAT THE PROCESS, OVER AND OVER AGAIN.
THE PRIMARY FUCTION FOR THESE BOTS IS TO FACILITATE THE MIGRATION OF LIFE FROM THE SPHERES TO THE ASTEROID SURFACE.
THERE ARE BOGS LOCATED ON EACH OF THE TWIN SPHERES. THESE BOGS PROVIDE THE SOURCE FOR THE “SEED SOUP”
THE AKER BOTS SCOOP UP A MEASURE OF THE SOUP FROM EACH OF THEIR ASSOCIATED SPHERES THEN RIDE THE ELEVATOR BEAM TO THE ASTEROID SURFACE.
