Cited Podcast The Green Cosmos: Gerard O’Neill’s Post-Political Space Utopia
Sep 9, 2025
In a riveting discussion, Mary-Jane Rubenstein, a Professor of religion and science, and Frederick Sharman, an architect and researcher, unravel the legacy of Gerard O'Neill's vision of space colonies. They explore how O'Neill's ideas could potentially address Earth's environmental crises through space-based solar power, while also critiquing the colonial and religious underpinnings in modern space rhetoric. Rubenstein highlights the troubling connections between capitalism and space expansion, urging for alternative narratives to guide our futures beyond expansionist myths.
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Space And Environmentalism Grew Together
- The environmental and space ages developed together and influenced each other deeply.
- Gerard O'Neill and others drew on space imagery to imagine planetary-scale environmental solutions.
Classroom Question Became A Movement
- O'Neill told a classroom story about asking top students whether habitats could be built in space.
- That seminar spun into the research program and the Space Studies Institute.
O'Neill's Critical Path To Space Habitats
- O'Neill proposed a stepwise 'critical path' from reusable shuttles to lunar mass drivers to L5 habitats.
- He argued abundant solar and lunar resources would power unlimited growth off Earth.
