A'ARU 1.0

"The Afterlife, not the end of life but a transition to another part of one's eternal journey"

Heading to the future, life in space is a new way of life that humans might experience after decades of research and experiments. Infinite sky and space, with new ways of living and surviving.

In ancient Egyptian mythology, Aaru ("Reeds, rushes"), known also as the Field of Reeds, is the heavenly paradise where Osiris rules.

Heading back to history, Osiris’s sons Anubis and Horus were strongly bonded brothers. Horus was the sky God while Anubis was the beyond life god. A'aru colony is inspired by the forms of both Anubis and Horus, which represent the new eternal life beyond space.

CONCEPT AND DESIGN ITERATIONS

Ancient Egyptians were the ancestors of creating heritage and human history, so what will be their vision and design approach to create a human colony in the space, in the future?

Our design iterations were all about creating an expandable colony in space, flexible being expanded with units, inspired by ancient Egyptian morphology with a new futuristic theme, and executable according to studies regarding physics, space, human.

THE COLONY

The colony is designed to accomodate up to 21,120 occupants, and it is designed to be fully sustainable and sufficient, from solar power using solar panels, to water recycling mechanisms, and agricultural and farms hub to suffice the whole occupants.

Also there are all facilities like medical, educational, R&D, sports, and entertainment facilities in consideration, to create a new life, a new mimiced medium close to the old one human race once lived.

A'ARU HUB DOCKING DECK

Starting from the docking zone, passengers arrive at the A'aru central hub, which have access to the thrusters and engines zone, agricultural zone and main control unit, workshops zone, and to the districts grid network which serves as the main circulation network between the districts.

PHASES OF CONSTRUCTION

PHASE 1:

The first stage starts with building up the heart of the ship, which contains thruster's engine, Solar panels, docking area, a manufacturer and a Ring for generating artificial gravity. the growth of the districts starts with a hexagon unit for shared services and an adjacent neighborhood accommodating 160 residents.

PHASE 2:

in the middle stages, the neighborhoods numbers start to increase around the shared services unit. and then start a hexagonal shared services and farms units and adjacent neighborhoods. the heart of the ship also starts to grow, and generate more energy.

PHASE 3:

In the final stages, the neighborhoods complete the symbol of Horus, and the heart of the ship complete the symbol of Anubis.

MATERIALS USED

Materials for the total colony could come from the Earth. As such space settlements could be built from much the same kinds of materials we use here on Earth, the colony is made out of Steel, Titanium, Aluminum, Carbon fibers, and Glass as those materials are durable.

REGIONAL SERVICES & FACILITES

Apart from the daily services in each district, between each six districts there is a regional services and facilities district that contains educational facilities (school to university), medical (hospital for surgeries and intense treatment), retail services, and agricultural markets and animal farms.

AGRICUTURAL SPHERE

 According to previous studies by NASA regarding human essential needs of food and water per day, and according to calculations based on those studies and the user's capacity of A'aru colony, we'll need 739,200 m2 of Agricultural space (which will provide 35 m2 of plants / user). Based on other studies conducted by experiments done in the ISS, plants don't need gravity to flourish and grow, as it has the ability to orient itself as it grows. The central Agricultural sphere serves as the capital supplier of plants and crops to all of the districts. The sphere is all-automated by robots which control and overlook the agricultural process, and the sphere is accessible to human specialists to move across the sphere through rows and columns of crops.

Passing through the transitional shaft penetrating the agricultural area, we arrive to the control chamber which controls the movement, power generation, and the whole systems of the colony.

CONTROL CENTER

At the end of the tunnel passing through the agricultural space, we go into the control center, which overlooks all the systems operating the colony, from energy levels to oxygen levels, to even monitoring the colony mechanisms of rotation and moving through space. As the agricultural space, the control center has no gravity as it doesn’t rotate, so it’s mostly automated but there is a railing that connects between the pods station and the seats of the control panels, so once the pod arrives, the passenger connects himself to a seat inside the railing and it moves him directly into his location infront of the control panel.

THE DISTRICTS

Each district is consisted of 80 serviced residential units on 4 levels. Each level has 18 standard units and 2 suites, each occupy 2 residents. The footprint of the district is 3,200 m2. Each district has a medical clinic unit, digital market, recreational area containing a restaurant and a café, running track and cross fit playgrounds, and a research area connected to a digital library. Circulation-wise, a central pod magnetic elevator connects between the exterior grid network to the district, and from inside travellators and 4 elevators connect between the levels. There are several open urban spaces on various levels with sitting areas and fruit plants, to create social interactive spaces between the residents.

The expansion plan of the districts is up to 132 district of 21,120 occupants (160 occupant / district).

INTERIOR STYLE OF THE COLONY

The interiors of the residential units and the whole district is driven through high-tech and futuristic style, with elements having the ancient Egyptian morphology mixed with new abstract treatments. Abstract and simplicity are the main keywords describing the direction of the design, from Led rail lights, to smooth faces and masses. The color scheme used is mostly neutral colors (white – grey – black) with complementary colors like orange and blue in high-tech holograms.

TYPES OF RESIDENTIAL UNITS

There are four types of residential units in the district which offers variant options for the occupants. All the types occupy 2 occupants.