The High Life

“…the opening of a new, high frontier will challenge the best that is in us … the new lands waiting to be built in space will give us new freedom to search for better governments, social systems, and ways of life.” – Gerard K. O’Neill, The High Frontier, 1976

Having hope for the future will always be fairly critical for the human race.  In the British Interplanetary Society we see that long-term future being primarily in space, though we often face the question from others as to whether that will necessarily be the case, given the significant – and expensive – challenges here on Earth that are likely to persist for some considerable time to come.

One such challenge, which is certainly likely to be around for a while, is that of our planet’s ever-increasing human population.  We looked at this, and the question of whether transporting large numbers of people away from Earth may provide a solution of sorts, in the recent March 2025 issue of Odyssey – the science fiction, space art and culture magazine of the BIS.  In particular, we considered the well-known proposals of Gerard K O’Neill in his 1976 book The High Frontier that artificial habitats in space might provide the answer.

The Society has a long history of promoting the concept of colonies in space.  BIS past President Ken Gatland discussed Professor O’Neill’s proposals in his article Cities in the Sky in Spaceflight in January 1976, and a full issue of the Journal of the BIS in August 1977 covered the subject.  In this, we saw the debate heat up when another respected past President, Val Cleaver, commented in his paper  – On the Realisation of Projects: With Special Reference to O’Neill Space Colonies and the Like  – that, whilst “he would not scoff at the possibility of something of the sort being realised eventually”, he nevertheless believed that much of what had been written on the subject to be “unmitigated nonsense” which showed “an ignorance of the real world of project costs and motivation”.

Fair enough, though Val suggested that the study of such colonies should still be kept under review as long-term possibilities, and other papers in this issue of JBIS focused more on the practicalities of more immediate, and more likely, space colonies.  Mark M. Hopkins’ A Preliminary Cost Benefit Analysis of Space Colonization provided a detailed economic accounting of the costs and benefits involved, and other papers considered the problems of radiation protection and the availability of raw materials for space manufacturing.  In those days, Skylab was still orbiting the Earth, and major space stations such as Mir and the International Space Station were still some way in the future, but never let it be said that the BIS was not ahead of the game in looking to the longer term prospects.

However, the attraction of substantial colonies in space remains, at least for the time being, in the realms of science fiction.  Ben Bova developed Professor O’Neill’s idea of “Island One” – a huge cylinder which rotates to provide artificial gravity on its inside surface – in his 1978 novel Colony.  In this story, the habitat is some twenty kilometres long and four wide, hanging in space near one of the stable Earth-Moon Lagrange points, and built from material scooped up from the lunar surface and placed in a mass accelerator that catapults the compressed soil off the Moon.  Eventually retrieved by a mass catcher in orbit, it is then shipped to “Island One”’s smelting plants and factories.

It was constructed by private enterprise.  The director of the colony describes it as “O’Neill’s dream, and lots of people scoffed at it – but not the corporations.”  But “Island One” ends up as a home only for the elite few of the human race – the vast majority suffer on the ever more overcrowded surface of Earth.  A visitor to the habitat observes that it could house more than a million people, rather than this handful of the super-rich, but then we ask ourselves whether even transporting a mere million souls into space would make much difference to the masses back home.

This elitism often forms a basis for fictional descriptions of life in space.  In the 2013 film Elysium, the poverty of those on Earth is contrasted with the luxurious lifestyle of those privileged to live on a vast habitat in orbit.  The ancient Greek idea of the Elysian Fields, where people chosen by the gods live indulgently for eternity, seems appropriate indeed.  Those who leave our planet have a glorious future – if they can afford to go or are amongst the chosen few deemed worthy to do so.  The rest of us are left to cope as best we can with a deteriorating environment and a collapsing society.

The concept of a better life away from the Earth need not relate solely to colonies in the vicinity of home.  It can equally apply to the future of those who colonise other worlds in other star systems.  Setting utopias on such planets, once humans have escaped from this one, is a frequent theme in science fiction.  In theory, you can make of it what you like once you’re completely free to do so.

In his 1954 novel The Caves of Steel, Isaac Asimov depicted a future Earth which is massively overpopulated, with people crammed into vast cities (though the figures suggested for global population seem fairly mild by today’s levels), compared with the Spacer worlds out in the cosmos where birth control has enabled societies to develop in wealth and contentment.  Well, relative contentment – Asimov raises the warning of stagnation in such a restricted type of civilization.  That could be a serious issue, since even the most utopian societies may still have their drawbacks.

There may, of course, be little choice about escaping from Earth to seek a life elsewhere if the situation is desperate.  The famous science fiction author Stephen Baxter is a strong supporter of the BIS and a Fellow of the Society, and he tackled this subject in his brilliant, but somewhat disturbing, 2008 novel Flood and its 2009 sequel Ark.  A select few are able to leave the Earth whilst what remains of the human race tries to survive on a flooded world.  We are left in little doubt about the need to allow just a very limited number of people to depart, based on their genetic diversity and abilities, if the long-term future of humanity is to be assured.

In the even more drastic circumstances of the 1951 film When Worlds Collide, Earth is facing imminent destruction and the passengers on the only spacecraft available to leave are selected by lottery.  Those not selected are not so happy, and one does question whether selection by lottery is necessarily the most appropriate means to ensure the survival of the human race.  But if escape is the only option for any sort of future, preparing for at least some to leave might be preferable whilst the resources are still available on Earth.  They might not always be.

Hopefully the colonization of space will not be dictated by such severe circumstances, and will be a more gradual, benevolent and inclusive process.  Advocates of space travel will always tend to find comfort in the idea of a better future in space than staying here on Earth.  That’s only natural.  But, even so, we can’t avoid the thought that you might feel differently if you’re not one of those with the wherewithal or talent to join the party away from our home planet.

Members’ comments

O’Neill’s book was one of the books I found in a used bookstore when I was a student, one of those serendipitous discoveries that left an important mark in the way I felt about the New Frontier. In the full post-Apollo age, with the initial triumphs of the Space Shuttle, and promises of missions to Mars slowly sublimating into nothingness, there was a book with a clear plan for expanding human civilization in space, at distances pretty convenient for current technologies.
Further re-readings of the book also disclosed another message, the vision for a better way of life, and for a new role of astronautics, with an economy of scale and a choice of practical solutions that really ringed positively in the forming mind of a young engineer.
This is a book which is an important classic for astronautics without being a technical one, and at the same time it is also a classic for a social vision of the future that is severely lacking in a darkening modern world.

–  Fabrizio Bernardini, BIS Vice President