In his 1976 book O'Neill described three reference designs, nicknamed "islands": Clarke used such a cylinder (albeit of extraterrestrial construction) in his novel Rendezvous with Rama. Shortly before O'Neill proposed his cylinder, Arthur C. In 1970, science-fiction author Larry Niven proposed a similar, but larger-scale, concept in his novel Ringworld. In 1954, German scientist Hermann Oberth described the use of gigantic habitable cylinders for space travel in his book Menschen im Weltraum-Neue Projekte für Raketen- und Raumfahrt ( People in Space-New Projects for Rockets and Space Travel). O'Neill's project was not the first example of this concept. This cooperative result inspired the idea of the cylinder and was first published by O'Neill in a September 1974 article of Physics Today. Several of the designs were able to provide volumes large enough to be suitable for human habitation. While teaching undergraduate physics at Princeton University, O'Neill set his students the task of designing large structures in outer space, with the intent of showing that living in space could be desirable. Interior view, showing alternating land and window segments Background Artist's impression of the interior of an O'Neill cylinder, showing the curvature of the inner surface Their rotation would provide artificial gravity. Each would be 5 miles (8.0 km) in diameter and 20 miles (32 km) long, connected at each end by a rod via a bearing system. The cylinders would rotate in opposite directions to cancel any gyroscopic effects that would otherwise make it difficult to keep them aimed toward the Sun. Īn O'Neill cylinder would consist of two counter-rotating cylinders. O'Neill proposed the colonization of space for the 21st century, using materials extracted from the Moon and later from asteroids. O'Neill in his 1976 book The High Frontier: Human Colonies in Space. Space settlement concept Artist's depiction of a pair of O'Neill cylindersĪn O'Neill cylinder (also called an O'Neill colony) is a space settlement concept proposed by American physicist Gerard K.
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