Tired of living on an overpopulated Earth?
Why not move to the O'Neill cylinder?
An artificial state-of-the-art space habitat
where we can control everything,
including the weather.
When physicist Gerard K. O'Neill
came up with the idea of his
space colony in 1974,
people thought he was crazy.
Back then, a cylinder floating in space
didn't seem like a space habitat
anyone would want to move to.
But fast forward to our time.
The world has grown by 4 billion people.
Climate change is on the rise.
Moving to a space station
doesn't seem so crazy anymore, huh?
Now, this far-fetched idea
inspires wealthy dreamers like Jeff Bezos,
who is looking into building
enough O'Neill cylinders to board one trillion people.
The idea behind the O'Neill cylinder
space station is simple.
It would be a rotating space station
about 6.5 km (4 mi) in diameter,
and 26 km (16 mi) in length.
To build a structure that size,
we wouldn't need to collapse
all the planets in the Solar System,
like we would for some of
the other space megastructures.
Mining our Moon and some nearby asteroids
should be enough to provide us
with all the materials we'd need.
We'd assemble the cylindrical station
right in space,
somewhere between the Earth and the Moon.
We'd park the O'Neill cylinder at a Lagrange point,
where it would stay in place,
without being drawn into the orbit
of either the Earth or the Moon.
Constructing the O'Neill cylinder would be one thing,
but we'd also need to make it habitable.
That means giving it gravity,
water, and a breathable atmosphere.
Gravity would be easy.
The cylinder would make a full rotation in two minutes.
That would generate a centripetal force,
which we would experience as gravity.
To make the structure more stable,
and prevent it from drifting away,
we'd need to build two counter-rotating cylinders,
connected at each end.
We'd design the space habitat
to mimic Earth's air pressure at sea level.
And the built-in aluminum mirrors
would give us control over the amount of sunlight
getting inside the habitat.
We'd be able to set our own day and night cycle,
and manage the temperature
inside the O'Neill cylinder too.
The space habitat would be powered by solar energy,
gathered by all the solar panels covering the outer cylinder.
We'd create artificial mountains,
valleys, and forests.
We'd bring in water derived from icy comets.
To get around the cylinder,
we'd use cable cars.
Or you could simply ride a bike.
It would be like a mini Earth,
but with us having complete control over its climate.
All that would take six years,
and a few trillion dollars to build.
And if you don't want to give up your home on Earth
for some space habitat,
the O'Neill cylinder would make a great vacation spot.
Welcome to O'Neill Cylinder 1,
where there is no gloomy weather,
and where all your food is grown at a local farm.
Climb up our artificial mountain,
and enjoy a great view
from our space habitat for the low, low price.
Of course, there would be some challenges.
We'd have to get really good
at recycling all the waste aboard the space habitat,
or it would quickly turn into a space garbage bin.
Then there are the asteroids.
We'd have to keep track of how much damage they cause
when they hit the O'Neill cylinder
so that the situation doesn't get out of hand.
And you know, this isn’t the only thing we should consider
to make the O’Neill cylinder a safer place to live.
If you want to know more,
check out What If Discussed,
where we talked to an assistant professor
of biomedical engineering at UC Irvine Ronke Olabisi
about the challenges of bringing people
to a space station like this.
Just tap on the link.