1

A point of departure

In 1975, the engineered forms of the US Apollo mod-ule and the USSR Soyuz joined in a symbolic end of the space race and intergalactic détente. Imagine the cul-tural, political, scientifi c, and historical forces wrapped up in the moment when the hatch opens, and three American astronauts join their two cosmonaut col-leagues. It is a moment of historical signifi cance, taking place in a physical space that has been engineered for a specifi c purpose—safe and economical spacefl ight—and not diplomatic relations. In the tight tube of an air

lock, representatives of two enemy people unite in a handshake, as their spacecraft have united in orbit. This occurrence is more frequent than not, the reuse of space beyond the intent of its design.

The astronaut and the farmer

Wheel charts are performative ephemera. Their stacked discs suggest dynamism, even when the chart’s information is fi xed and predictable. In spite of infi nite symmetry, the wheel chart requires a certain amount of asymmetry in order to function. The wheel

Andrew Liebchen Launch Agriculture

2

Andrew Liebchen Launch Agriculture

chart’s information may be rigorous and expansive; the junction of kitsch and tactility make the informa-tion digestible and portable. Wheel charts, like space craft themselves may be immutable; the ephemeral life they lead is not.

The rocket scientist is also a missile designer, while the outer space mission planner must juggle schedules, orbital rhythms, and planetary cycles. It is a discipline the farmer, obsessed with the weather, the length of the day, and the phase of the moon, could appreciate.

Waste cells for reprocessing

Hydrogen comes out

Chlamydomonas ReinhardtiiChla hardtii

Aerobic cellular respi

ratio

n

Hydrogenase

Reactor #1normal

environment

Reactor #2no Oxygenno Sulfur4 days

algae cells go in...

n

ccoccoo

HHydrogen

1

Paylo

ad Pr

ocessing

(above left) A wheel chart describing the area of cultiva-tion surface needed to produce hydrogen fuel from algae at various latitudes. (above right) This wheel relies on juxtaposition and obfuscation to subvert romanti-cism and linear narrative. At once, humanity’s oldest organized pursuit (farming) is place atop its newest (the crushing industry needed to fuel America’s consumer cul-ture). (below) A diagram describes the parallel processes of preparing a payload for launch and the cultivation of hydrogen from the single-cell green algae C. Reinhardtii.

3

Algae Skin

Deta

il

The slide rule employed by the mission planner a more complex version of the wheel chart used by the farmer to time his heifer’s menstrual cycle.

An architectural resolution

The degree project seeks to project a facility for the

(above) Exploded diagram of the hydrogen production array and the algae cultivation skin. Hydrogen fuel is stored in the gasometer hidden within a protective geodesic.

4

Andrew Liebchen Launch Agriculture

production of Hydrogen rocket fuel grown from algae. The facility’s slow harvest of Hydrogen coincides with the periodic return of Halley’s Comet; culminating in the launch of a scientifi c probe to study the comet and the solar system. Implicit in the facility’s programming is a cycle of growth, launch, and obsolescence.

Sited within the zone of exclusion, the Hydrogen production array, gasometer, Vertical Assembly Array cultivate and store Hydrogen rocket fuel, grown sus-tainably from massive hydrogen arrays.

During most of the building’s life, the gasometer within the geodesic at the heart of the facility slowly collects and stores Hydrogen harvested from the array. However, as the perigee of Halley’s orbit brings it nearer to Earth, the Hydrogen in the gasometer is

2009 2035 2061

(above) A life-cycle diagram of the launch facility. As Halley’s comet approaches in 2061, hydrogen fuel pro-duction stops, the gasometer is emptied into the waiting rocket, and the facility becomes a mega-pavillion for the once-in-a-lifetime launch.

5

emptied into the rocket as fuel. Visitors to the array are at an apogee and the now irrelevant gasometer is converted to a planetarium.

Like the American and Soviet space programs, will ar-chitecture reach détente with its environment? Thirty years on, we can see how the space race panned out; we can visit its artifacts in museums. Will its now state-of-the-art assemblages be visited by our grandchil-dren, becoming obsolete relics of a brave past?

6

Andrew Liebchen Launch Agriculture