A 'Megasatellite' Orbiting Ceres Would Make a Fine Home For Humans, Scientist Says - ScienceAlert

Well, according to physicist and astrobiologist Pekka Janhunen of the Finnish Meteorological Institute in Finland, dwarf planet Ceres isn't entirely implausible.

An alternative to the planetary colony model is an artificial space colony, orbiting the Sun - a space station spinning to generate enough centrifugal force to mimic one g: Earth gravity.

Solar panels on the dwarf planet's surface could easily power a space elevator to the satellite.

"Lifting the materials from Ceres is energetically cheap compared to processing them into habitats, if a space elevator is used," Janhunen explains.

"Because Ceres has low gravity and rotates relatively fast, the space elevator is feasible.".

These mirrors would be hinged on one side of the disc-shaped satellite, like a makeup compact, and could be adjusted to collect the most sunlight as the dwarf planet moves around the Sun.

For that matter, so are space elevators, giant mirrors, and radiation shielding sufficient to protect a space colony.

On Ceres it requires some effort to lift the materials to orbit using the elevator, but it is energetically cheap

Once the materials are in high Ceres orbit, the thermal environment is uniform and energy is easy to get due to absence of eclipses."