The High Frontier: An Easier Way: creating a geography for future colonies in space
The main course for this book review is the 2018 update The
High Frontier: An Easier Way, by Tom Marotta and Al Globus, cover art by
Adrianna Allen, a paperback (167 pages) that seems to be totally self-published
with no separately named imprint. The book expands on
(Caption: How to play High Frontier board game in 4-16 minutes, by Charlie Fish)
The basic concept of the books is that human beings could construct space cities with artificial gravity achieved by rotation of a cylinder (O�Neill) or, conceivably, the cylinder could be self-connected as a torus and rotated in annelid segments (the Stanford Torus). The latter would be interesting because an inhabitant would have no sense that his universe (indoors) had any edge or boundary.
(Caption: High Frontier documentary, Journeyman Pictures, 2008)
A large enough structure, at least in science fiction, might be 20 miles long and about 2 miles in diameter and house millions. A large enough structure would have its own internal geography, and be another place, rather like a large model railroad setup that revolves around a control center.
The biggest practical problem would be the mass required to build radiation shielding required, at least in deep space. In equatorial Low Earth Orbit (ELEO) the need for shielding is orders of magnitude less (page 65). The smallest of these designs is the Kalpana, which may be as small as 112 meters in diameter, so the curvature will be very marked.
Some scientists will question whether artificial gravity completely functions sustainability for human health. The Coriolis effect will affect daily life. Imagine how it could affect a pitcher's curve ball or the course of a home run batted baseball or field goal kick in football (or forward pass for that matter).
The authors say that housing units could be sold as condos. From ELEO people could telecommute to work on Earth. Travel to these habitats from Earth would eventually be economically feasible as air travel. But people would have to be trained and adapted medically for the artificial gravity experience.
The authors maintain that gradually, larger settlements could be built with extraterrestrial mined materials farther out in the solar system (like near Europa, Titan [hosted by Carlos Maza!], or even Pluto) and eventually one could scotch-hop to other solar systems. But people living in these colonies would have to live highly disciplined lives, probably with authoritarian political structures, something the authors fail to say. Whole generations would live in these colonies for the sake of future generations possibly settling on planets in other solar systems. But this could become necessary if our own Earth becomes uninhabitable, which it surely will in a few hundred million years, and could much sooner because of man-made climate change.
While I lived in Manhattan in the mid and late 1970s, I
traveled by air several times to Phoenix and drove rental cars 40 miles west
(to Tonopah on I-10) to a 'UFO-house' community called 'Understanding' run by
Dan and Florence Fry. The biggest event was probably 'Man in Space' in April
1978. Fry authored several small self-published books, the best known of which
was To Men of Earth, where he claims to have hosted an extraterrestrial alien
Alan, whom he met while working for the government, and who looked like a
normal human male. Another of his books was Atoms, Galaxies and
Understanding. Dan Fry advocated a 'process piece' called
Author: Tom Marotta, Al Globus, Gerald K. O'Neill
Title, Subtitle:The High Frontier: An Easier Way
publication date 2018 (refer to 1976)
ISBN 978-1719231749, 978-168-687-272-3
Publication: 2018, 167 pages, self (1976, 326 pages)paper
(Posted: Tuesday, January 21, 2020 at 1:30 PM EST)