And what if you do not limit yourself to the walls of the house, but build a barrier and cover the surrounding space? And how great would it be not to hide in the house all winter, but to walk on the street wearing light clothes and not be afraid of the cold at the same time?! This question is not a retelling of a fantastic movie excerpt. In the summer of this year, the company "Sinet" and the Northeastern Federal University began working together on the project "House under the Dome" with great scientific significance.
Will we hide from winter?
This project, reminiscent of scenes from the fantastic films "The Truman Show", "Sphere", was created on the initiative of the Sinet Group company under the leadership of Arsen Tomsky. Here 's what Arsen Tomsky says about the project:
- In our opinion, the most significant factor negatively affecting the quality of life of Sakha people is a very cold and long winter. This problem cannot be solved in one day, it is necessary to study and investigate everything. Therefore, we decided to create a project called "House under the dome". This is a very interesting experience, and if the project turns out to be viable, such opportunities may open up before us, which now seem fantastic. For example, imagine: whole neighborhoods or villages under a dome - this will be an inspiring example for northern cities around the world.
As already mentioned, "House under the Dome" is a joint research experiment of the Northeastern Federal University and the company "Sinet". One family will live in the house. The research will be conducted in different directions: the influence of the dome on permafrost, the efficiency of heat consumption, the stability of the dome structure to natural phenomena, etc. One of the main directions is the well-being of people living under the dome. Living conditions, health, psychophysical conditions - everything will be under close supervision. It is planned that the project participants will broadcast on YouTube every day.
More solid than egg
The facility is being built at the NEFU test site on the territory of the Kangalassy TOR, 40 kilometers from Yakutsk. The house is already ready to move in, the construction of the dome itself, as can be seen in the photo, is almost completed. And are the names of the future inhabitants of the house known?
- There are many people who would like to participate, many applications have been received. But we decided to prepare everything first, and then show the house to the candidates. And only after that we will finally choose: they will choose us, and we will choose them," Arsen Tomsky answers.
Having heard about the "observation of the psychophysical state", one might think that the participants would enter the dome at the beginning of winter and come out only in the spring. However, it is not like that. The curator of the project from NEFU Dmitry Vasilyevich Filippov, Dean of the Road Transport Institute:
- Participants are free to leave the dome. Apart from changing their place of residence, there will be no changes in their lives. They will go to work, they can use their car. However, it is necessary to study the differences in the condition of people living in winter in a place where there is no snow and wind. And so the house itself is not particularly different from ordinary houses. There will be a modern autonomous furnace heating - a long-burning boiler.
Questions requiring an answer
Although the dome looks small, it weighs 6 tons and has a diameter of 20 meters. The sphere consists of many triangles, the top will be covered with PVC film. There are still many different nuances, there are no answers to some questions today. For example, the most banal question is: will the sphere withstand the weight of snow that will fall on it? According to Dmitry Vasilyevich, it is assumed that the snow will lie only on the very top of the dome, from the rest of the parts it will slip under its own weight. Similar frames in the form of a dome have long been used in the world. For example, observatories and stadiums are built using the same method of "honeycomb". Thus, the strength of such a structure has been tested by time. How warm it will be inside, how this heat will affect the permafrost, how the air inside , how people's health will change - these and other questions will be answered during the experiment. Several groups of NEFU scientists will work on the project. Scientists from the faculties of road and geological exploration, engineering, medical, physics and technology, psychology institutes are ready to conduct continuous monitoring.
What will happen after the experiment?
If the results of the experiment are positive, it is planned to build a larger dome. At the moment, no one can say for sure, but the project has amazing prospects. For example, there is an idea for growing vegetables under the dome: cucumbers, tomatoes, potatoes, perhaps even shrubs and trees. You can simultaneously compare the growth of vegetables in greenhouse conditions, outdoors and under a dome.
It will be possible to study permafrost and hydrology if you cover the area with a lake with a dome. You can find answers to questions concerning asphalt pavements, because this is one of the most crucial issues in Yakutia.
If we open the veil of the future, suddenly there will be cities in Yakutia that will be under warm sunlight during the long cold winter? You come home from work in February in just a T-shirt and trousers and tell your wife: "I miss cold somehow, I'm going to go outside of the dome for a few days to cheer up. Where are my winter coat and skis?" - these words, perhaps, we will say in the near future.
