4 thoughts on “The Other Fortieth Anniversary”

  2. One of the comments is correct that the significant date was the publication of O’neill’s article in “Physics Today”,which was in September of 1974. I first heard about the idea in summer of ’76.

  3. Hmm. Well, the other-other 40th anniversary is the 40th anniversary of the 40th anniversary of the Bernal sphere. Seems to me that O’Neill owed a lot to Bernal.

  4. Space exploration justified by its expansion of the economy does go way back as does the idea of orbital space habitats. Bernal is just one early example of the idea. Even much of Tsiolkovsky’s work discussed the economic benefits of space, not merely the value to science of space explore. Before NASA it was just taken for granted by most space writers that space would be explored and developed by private ventures, as was the case for all frontiers.

    I know the two major influences that interested me in the economic development of space both predate O’Neill. The first was Arthur C. Clarke’s book “Profiles of the Future” which I read in 1968. In it Clarke discussed in two chapters how the vast energy and mineral resources of the Solar System showed that the only way humanity could run out of resources would be by a lack of imagination in developing them.

    I was also influenced by Isaac Asimov’s essay” There’s No Place Like Spome” in his book “Is Anyone there?” (1967) which I read at about the same time. In it Asimov argued that the best place for a civilization was in “Spomes” (SPacehOMES) that would be built out of materials mined from asteroids. But |Asimov went far beyond O’Neill’s basic concept by showing how the addition of a modest propulsion system would allow humans to use the spomes to first develop the resources of the entire Solar System, and then simply keep going via the Ort Cloud to the next star systems in a slow migration that would populate the Galaxy over millions of years. I still think that is the best direction for the economic development of space and that is why I a strong advocate for lunar development. The Moon is the ideal source of materials for building the first Spomes for the settlement of the Solar System.

    So O’Neill ideas of a space vision based on economic development and space habitats was not really new. But it had a major impact because the dominant public view of space policy at that time, which dated to the 1950’s (IGY) and 1960’s (Apollo) was that space exploration was about science, not economics. Sadly this recent perspective of space as science still dominates the public’s perception which is why there are still endless debates about the value of space exploration and of sending humans into space. It’s a major factor NASA is in the mess it is today both in terms of funding, vision and support.

    Because the view of space as an economic sphere got lost in with NASA and Apollo is why I think Gerald O’Neill had the influence he did with his article (1974) and then later book “The High Frontier” (1976) providing an economic justification for space development. Because both the article and book came out shortly after the Club of Rome’s book “The Limits of Growth” was also a key factor as different groups looked for arguments to counter the eco-left view that the collapse of humanity from the lack of resources was near. Both combined to create a following for O’Neill’s work that Asimov and Clarke work ideas lacked, with the resulting emergence of the L-5 societies to popularize it. O’Neill just happened to be at the right place at the right time to be have his ideas have an impact on space policy.

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