Fighting for environmental protection on Earth should be our top priority, but this idea could also help. We need all the help we can get, as fast as we can get it, and this could be done in less than a century. Jeff Bezos is likely to use his billions to bankroll this proposal by Princeton physics professor Gerard O’Neil:
if work is begun soon, nearly all our industrial activity could be moved away from Earth’s fragile biosphere within less than a century from now.….
It is possible even with existing technology, if done in the most efficient ways….
The agricultural areas are separate from the living areas, and each one has the best climate for the particular crop it is to grow. Gravity, atmosphere and insolation are earthlike in most agricultural cylinders, but there is no attempt there to simulate an earthlike appearence. Selected seeds in a sterile, isolated environment initiate growth, so that no insecticides or pesticides are needed. (The evolution time for infectious organism is long, and resterilization of a contaminated agricultural cylinder by heating would not be difficult.) All food can be fresh, because it is grown only 20 miles from the point of use. The agricultural cylinders can be evenly distributed in seasonal phase, so that at any given time several of them are at the right month for harvesting any desired crop….
The solar power stations, which consist of paraboloidal mirrors, boiler tubes and conventional steam-turbine electric generators, can provide the community with sufficient power, easily up to ten times the power per person now used (10 kw) in highly industrialized regions [ref 2].
Much of the human population could move to these spaceships as well, and live there permanently (thus reducing the need to transfer people and supplies between Earth and space). People would live right next to the food and industry being produced in space, thus alleviating carbonization of Earth. In the beginning, there wouldn’t be transportation of agricultural products or industrial products back to Earth; the space colonies would be self-sustaining, and serve mainly to reduce population pressure (and thus carbon footprint) on Earth. Eventually, if better technologies for transportation between Earth and space are developed, agricultural products or industrial products could be shipped to Earth, further reducing pollution of Earth. The part of the spaceship where humans live would be separate from the parts reserved for agriculture and industry, so the humans in space wouldn’t suffer from agricultural and industrial pollution either. If these space colonies are well designed to maximize safety and quality of life, there will be many human communities who will want to relocate to them for the adventure and opportunities, as well as for the chance to start anew with a self-sustaining community of likeminded, mostly self-governing people.
We’ll have to figure out better ways to provide radiation shielding and artificial gravity comparable to that on Earth, but we’re not far from being able to do that, especially for near-Earth orbits, which are already partly protected from radiation. The astronaut who spent the most total time in space was Gennady Padalka, who spent 878 days in space; he’s still alive and well at age 60 today, even though he started going to space in 1998, when radiation protection technologies were not as good as they are now.
The advances in science and technology that would result as part of the process of trying to get this done would be another side benefit, and could help speed up the development of other environmentalist technologies for use on Earth as well. The idea is also so exciting and fun that it could attract support from many people and politicians who normally aren’t as motivated to protect the environment as we are. And as far as space exploration ideas go, this is a better use of resources than other kinds of space exploration we are doing, such as trying to go to Mars or return to the moon or explore other parts of the solar system, all of which have payoffs for Earth (other than improving science and technology) that are much further in the future, if they exist at all.
Never mind what we think of Bezos in general; I think this particular idea is good, and could help us decarbonize Earth in time to avert the worst of the looming climate catastrophe. If Bezos throws his billions behind this, and uses his power and prestige behind it to get other billionaires and governments to help, it might work.
What do you think?