The High Frontier: Human Colonies in Space
 First edition cover | |
| Author | Gerard K. O'Neill |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Rick Guidice |
| Subject | Space colonization |
| Publisher | William Morrow and Company |
| Publication date | 1976 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages | 288 pp (first edition) |
| ISBN | 0-688-03133-1 |
| OCLC | 2388134 |
| Dewey Decimal | 609/.99 |
| LC Class | TL795.7 .O53 1977 |
The High Frontier: Human Colonies in Space is a 1976 book by Gerard K. O'Neill, a road map for what the United States might do in outer space after the Apollo program, the drive to place a human on the Moon and beyond. It envisions large human occupied habitats in the Earth-Moon system, especially near stable Lagrangian points. Three designs are proposed: Island one (a modified Bernal sphere), Island two (another sphere), and Island 3 (two O'Neill cylinders). These would be constructed using raw materials from the lunar surface launched into space using a mass driver and from near-Earth asteroids. The habitats were to spin for simulated gravity and be illuminated and powered by the Sun. Solar power satellites were proposed as a possible industry to support the habitats.
Awards
[edit]The book won the 1977 Phi Beta Kappa Award in Science.[1]
Illustrations
[edit]The book featured impressions of life in outer space by a number of artists including Don Davis, Rick Guidice, and Chesley Bonestell.
Interior of an O'Neill cylinder
Interior of an O'Neill cylinder
Solar eclipse inside an O'Neill cylinder
Interior of a Bernal sphere
Cutaway of a Bernal sphere
Exterior of a Bernal sphere
Exterior of a Bernal sphere
Agricultural module of a Bernal sphere
The Stanford torus and its mirror
Stanford torus under construction
Stanford torus cutaway view
Interior of a Stanford torus
Lunar mass driver powered by solar panels.
Solar power satellite built from an asteroid with a Bernal sphere in the bottom right corner.
In popular culture
[edit]Many of the concepts illustrated in The High Frontier can be seen in the early series of the anime franchise Mobile Suit Gundam, which depicts a world where humans have migrated into space colonies. The O'Neill cylinder colony design appears frequently, largely unchanged from its original concept.[2] The main space station in the popular TV series, Babylon 5, is similar to an O'Neill cylinder, but with internal lighting replacing the windows and mirrors.
Criticism
[edit]Science fiction writer Charles Stross wrote a critical essay with a similar title on the feasibility of interstellar space travel and making practical use of various moons and planets in the Solar System: The High Frontier: Redux.[3] Stross's criticisms do not directly apply to the O'Neill's "High Frontier" document about colonizing interplanetary space.
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ↑ "Phi Beta Kappa Award in Science Winners". Phi Beta Kappa Society. 2007. Archived from the original on 2022-01-02. Retrieved 2023-01-28.
- ↑ "Frequently Asked Questions: Time and Space". GundamOfficial. July 16, 2003. Retrieved 2008-09-10.
- ↑ "The High Frontier: Redux". June 16, 2007. Retrieved 2009-09-26.