![]() ![]() ![]() In recent months I learned that the space pioneer Konstantin Tsiolkowsky, in his dreams of the future, was one of the first to escape that hangup.īy chance, and initially almost as a joke, I began some calculations on the problem in 1969, at first as an exercise for the most ambitious students in an introductory physics course. ![]() In addition, a mental “hangup” - the fixed idea of planets as colony sites - appears to have trapped nearly everyone who has considered the problem, including, curiously enough, almost all science-fiction writers. But I believe we have now reached the point where we can, if we so choose, build new habitats far more comfortable, productive and attractive than is most of Earth.Īlthough thoughts about migration into space are as old as science fiction, the technical basis for serious calculation did not exist until the late 1960’s. It is orthodox, for example, to believe that Earth is the only practical habitat for Man, and that the human race is close to its ultimate size limits. New ideas are controversial when they challenge orthodoxy, but orthodoxy changes with time, often surprisingly fast. O’Neill was professor of physics at Princeton University.Ĭareful engineering and cost analysis shows we can build pleasant, self-sufficient dwelling places in space within the next two decades, solving many of Earth’s problems. Reproduced with permission from Physics Today, 27(9):32-40 (September, 1974). ![]()
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