What are the origins of the space settlement concept?
In 1969, O’Neill was teaching a physics course at Princeton. America was engaged in the Apollo effort, so O’Neill was working space travel into many of the physics problems assigned. He was concerned about the persistent talk among academics regarding overpopulation and “limits to growth”. He was also dismayed by many young people’s resigned acceptance of two concepts he personally found repugnant. One was future totalitarian control over the use of resources, the other was that a decline in the standard of living was inevitable. One day he asked his students the following question: Is the surface of the Earth really the best place for an expanding, technological civilization? After some calculation, the answer seemed to be “no” (see advantages above). They turned to the design of an Earth-like space habitat. When they calculated the maximum size possible, given present strengths of steel cable, aluminum plates, and glass panels, the answer took them by surprise. Later studies funded b
