The High Frontier: Human Colonies in Space

by Gerard K. O'Neill

Book Overview

CD-ROM and Book. Man's on-going conquest of the solar system has been much publicised for its miraculous accomplishments. What is generally less publicised are the potential uses of space beyond... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0962237906
• ISBN13: 9780962237904
• Release Date: January 1989
• Publisher: Space Studies Institute Press
• Length: 326 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.

Customer Reviews

A view of the future/present that might have been

Well, maybe it wasn't all that plausible after all, but I remember being totally fascinated by this book, and the Stewart Brand space habitats as well, and thinking that the science fiction life-in-space might not be too far off. Here were real scientists talking about it, planning it, and worrying about the costs, the logistics, the psychology of isolation, all of it. But the imagination and the vision didn't come to pass. Maybe it was a phantasm or maybe there wasn't enough of the vision thing among the leaders.

The Classic!

This is the classic proposal for the human expansion into space by the originator of the idea himself, Gerard O'neill. In it, he shows how space settlement could be done using boring 1970's technology. A very good and thought provoking read, it is the ONLY space book that presented a plausible way for the rest of us (not just the "experts" and scientists) could go move into space in style AND the only one to show a semi-convincing way to pay for it all (space-based solar power).

dream

For those who dream of colonising Mars a hundred years from now, and the far stars in the distance, a thousand years from now, this book is a must read. For this is a world among the stars achievalble today. A land oif endless resources and land available for all to live well, and start over. And should be required reading for all High School science students.This is not Star Trek or Mobile Suit Gundam, this is for real. I first came upon the first edition of this book back duirng my high school days in the public library. Everyone needs a good dream every now and then to rest their souls upon should they choose to study a nightmare.And though I was not able to comprehend the vision, in the beginning, the dream did take root. And I firmly do wish for more books on this subject to be written. COLONIES IN SPACE by T.A. Heppenheimer being the only one I have found so far.Dr. O'Neill envisions a world of endless resources built from the moon. And it can be achieved.

Outstanding, a must-have for every reader.

This book is amazing. This 3rd edition has two parts: the first is the original text by the late Gerard O'Neil, one of the great visionaries of the 20th century. Though things did not develop in the time scale he hoped for, his message is as valid today as it was in 1980 -- or even more so. The second part of the book is a series of chapters by contemporary leaders in the aerospace industry, and provide a fresh, modern perspective on where we've come since O'Neil's day, where we need to go, and how to get there.The emphasis of this book is more on what we need to do, why we need to do it, and what that would be like, than on the details of "how." Other books cover the "how" in more detail. But because of the focus of this one, it is easily read by anyone; no special technical or math skills are required.After reading only part of this book, I did some web searches and found that the concept of space solar power (which is central to O'Neil's thesis) is still very much alive today. NASA did a new study on it just a couple years ago, and it has been discussed in Congress increasingly often since then. It is a very real concept, very nearly ready for implementation. Read this book to find out why it's so very important.

Excellent book on practicality of space colonization

THE HIGH FRONTIER is an excellent book on the practicality andeconomics of the human colonization of space -- very entertaining toread and full of interesting technical information. It is the classic work on the subject -- highly regarded by folks such as Carl Sagan, Isaac Asimov, and Thomas Paine (former administrator of NASA). When this influential book was first published, it changed a lot of minds throughout the world. Is human colonization of space achievable even with 1970's-1980's technology? Could it be profitable on a global-economic scale? The author thinks so and tells us why and how; and his credentials are impressive. The author, Dr. Gerard K. O'Neill, was a tenured professor of physics at Princeton and one of the founders of the Geostar Satellite Corporation (a company that worked on implementing GPS satellites). Many of the conclusions in the book are backed up by actual experiment and by numerous studies done both within and without NASA. This is one of the handful of books that have helped to shape my outlook on the future of mankind -- a strong statement reserved for an excellent and influential work. -- Brooke P. Anderson