Floating cities (science fiction)
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In science fiction, floating cities are settlements that use buoyancy to remain in the atmosphere of a planet. Buckminster Fuller first proposed the concept for Earth, by building a geodesic sphere that would be heated by sunlight, and float. A similar design would permit settlers to live on Venus, where at ground level the temperature is too hot and the atmospheric pressure too great. It would also permit settlement of the outer three gas giants which have no ground. The main industry of floating cities in gas giants might be to extract Helium-3 or other useful materials from their atmospheres. Jupiter is unacceptable for habitation due to its high gravity, escape velocity and radiation, but the solar system's other gas giants are more practical.
Floating Cities in Popular Fiction
The idea of cities floating in gas giants was popularized by the Star Wars movie The Empire Strikes Back, in which a gas mine floats in the atmosphere of the planet Bespin. Another notable example is the antigravity-supported City of Stratos, in the Star Trek episode The Cloud Minders. In Stargate Atlantis the title city floats on an ocean (although it is actually a fully functional interstellar spaceship). The main setting in is a giant dome shaped city that is a spaceship. In the Beast Wars of the Transformers universes, the Vok build an observational flying land structure on which are a garden and a number of buildings.
See also
List of fictional airborne castles
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