Double Diamond Domes

Diamond crystal structures can be grown to form super strong buildings. In 2215 the skyline of places like London are adorned with tall strong diamond skyscrapers that cast glorious colours across their cities.

In space, the diamond growing technology has been adapted to grow domes that light can be filtered through to be made safe for humans. Chris Mo, an engineer working for REC had an idea to make two thinner domes that work as double glazing. Between the domes is a rarefied gas mix that works like a fluorescent lightbulb, that when hit by sunlight and solar radiation, produces a sky blue light. The dome, lit by sunlight, can be a natural garden where recreation can safely be done in ordinary clothing. There is also nothing to focus on in the continuous blue light except any bright thing outside the dome, so the human eye shifts to the infinity focal range, giving the feeling of being on Earth.

Space stations are generally designed now with a dome on the side nearest to the star. All sunlight (that is not filtered out) goes through the dome before shining on the rest of the station, so the light is filtered to be safe to humans. The result is that natural white light shines into rooms through windows and when people look out they see a patch of blue sky with the sun shining. Beautiful and safe.

Also full UV light filtering is only achieved through light passing in and out (across) the dome, so people within the dome can get an Earth like UV exposure and for some, a suntan. The light also helps people photosynthesise vitamin D and generally help the skin. Although the double diamond is more expensive than many other methods, REC uses it on its largest, most valuable stations. The domes effectively remove 'cabin fever' allowing the space stations with these domes to attract the best staff in the industry as well as retaining them.

REC also produces cheaper triangular double diamond flat panels, which can be used to make any geodesic shape including domes. Although these are much cheaper than a single dome, they do have triangular metal struts that block sunlight. Consequentially they are less nice to look through and don't provide the 'infinite blue' illusion.

The HAAS European Class ships all carry dome blisters where the rarefied gas can be pumped out, to reveal a starscape. It is located above the bridge so it has a view over engines and if all electrical systems are lost, the captain can look directly into space.