The Future of Mankind
I’ve been interested in astronomy and space travel for as long as I can remember. I used to read everything that I could get my hands on related to space. When I was a teenager, I read a book titled “The High Frontier: Human Colonies in Space” by Gerard K. O’Neill. The book was a result of an earlier paper by O’Neill titled “The Colonization of Space”. O’Neill came up with a unique concept for the design of a space habitat which he called the O’Neill cylinder. It was a giant hollow cylinder with little communities built on the inside surface where thousands of people lived and worked. Artificial gravity was achieved by slowly spinning the cylinder on its axis. The farther you were from the center of the cylinder, the stronger the artificial gravity would feel. At the very center of the cylinder along its axis would be an area of very low if not zero gravity.
The O’Neill space habitat was a completely closed eco-system that was self sustaining. The residents would grow their own food and recycle everything. They would need very little if any supplies from Earth. They would have Doctor’s and Lawyers, Teachers and Police Officers and every other type of occupation just like a town or city on Earth. The people who lived on the habitat would each have their own reasons for living there. Some would be there hoping to escape the violence and crime on Earth, some for adventure and some because of their religious or spiritual beliefs. Most however would be there because of some particular job skill or experience they possessed that was needed by the habitat community. At least in the beginning.
Obviously, a space habitat on the scale needed to support thousands of people would be an expense greater than any project ever undertaken by the human race. No “one” country would be able to undertake such a project on their own. It would have to be a project that required the support of the international community and would take many years if not several decades to complete. However, I would suspect that the rationale for such a project could be easily justified by the multitude of products and services that could be provided by such a community in space. All sorts of materials could be manufactured more cheaply in the low-gravity environment of the habitat. Also, many medicines could be manufactured there as well as certain types of medical procedures could be done safer and more easily than they could be done on Earth.
I know it’s difficult for most people to comprehend the need or the justification for such a facility in space, especially with the current economic situation we find ourselves in. Most would say that we have enough problems here on Earth without spending money to go out into space. That is true in one sense, but it is also very short-sighted to look at something like this only in that way. If mankind has any chance of long-term survival as a species, then he must leave the confines of this planet and move out into space. To remain bound to this tiny planet is a journey to certain extinction.
While out on YouTube, I stumbled across this animation of just such a space habitat. I think it will give you a much better idea of what such a facility would look like. It is difficult to comprehend the magnitude of something like this without seeing a picture or video. I hope you enjoy this as much as I did.
One might wonder when a project like this could be undertaken. I think that we will see permanent settlements established on the Moon and Mars long before something of this size could be built in space. Bases on the Moon and then on Mars will be our training ground for building self sustaining human settlements in space. Then we come to where such a space city would be built. There have been many proposals made by various space study groups over the years, but I think most will agree that the best location would be the L5 point between the earth and the moon. The L5 point is the point within the Earth Moon system where the gravity of each is cancelled out. Thus a space station built at L5 would be able to maintain its position without expending very much energy.
Assuming that we don’t destroy ourselves first or that a comet or asteroid doesn’t strike the planet or a devastating global pandemic doesn’t wipe us out, I think the earliest that a space habitat like the O’Neill cylinder could be built would be in the later part of the 21st century or early 22nd century. I think we’ll have to mature somewhat as a species before we’ll be able to act upon such an adventure. I only hope that we have the foresight and the courage to undertake such a journey in the years ahead. The future of mankind depends on it.