New Books in Science, Technology, and Society The High Frontier: Gerard O’Neill’s Space Utopia
Sep 13, 2025
Frederick Sharman, an architect and researcher at Morgan State University, dives into Gerard O'Neill's revolutionary vision for space colonies from the 1970s. O'Neill proposed these habitats to solve Earth's environmental crises by harnessing space resources. Sharman highlights O'Neill's innovative ideas about sustainable living in space and the potential to beam energy back to Earth. The conversation also touches on the legacy of early space evangelists and the cultural implications of their narratives, raising questions about our future in space and the environment.
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Space Age Shaped Environmental Thought
- The space age and environmentalism grew up together and cross-influenced each other’s ideas and imagery.
- Gerard O'Neill and others used cosmic ecology concepts to reframe Earth limits as solvable by off-world engineering.
Origin Story Of The High Frontier
- Gerard O'Neill told a classroom story about assigning students to ask if habitats could be built in space and framed the resulting plan as theirs.
- Frederick Sharman suspects O'Neill may have mythologized this origin to justify his vision.
Critical Path Makes Colonies Technical
- O'Neill laid out a 'critical path' from reusable heavy-lift craft to lunar mass drivers to Lagrange-point assembly.
- His plan made space settlement feel like an engineering sequence rather than a political project.
