Wikibooks: Colonizing Outer Space/Colonization/Space

• Format: Book
• Language: English
• Subjects: Arctic
• Online Access: https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Colonizing_Outer_Space/Colonization/Space

= Living in Space = Compared to other locations orbit has substantial advantages and one major but solvable problem. Orbits close to Earth can be reached in hours whereas the Moon is days away and trips to Mars take months. There is ample continuous solar power in high Earth orbits whereas all planets lose sunlight at least half the time. Weightlessness makes construction of large colonies considerably easier than in a gravity environment. Astronauts have demonstrated moving multi ton satellites by hand. 0g recreation is available on orbital colonies but not on the Moon or Mars. Finally the level of (pseudo ) gravity is controlled at any desired level by rotating an orbital colony. Thus the main living areas can be kept at 1g whereas the Moon has 1/6g and Mars 1/3g. 1g is critical at least for early colonies to ensure that children grow up with strong bones and muscles. Several design groups have examined orbital colony feasibility. They have determined that there are ample quantities of all the necessary materials on the Moon and Near Earth Asteroids that solar energy is readily available in very large quantities and that no new scientific breakthroughs are necessary although a great deal of engineering would be required. Remote research stations in inhospitable climates such as the or Mars Arctic Research Station can also provide some practice for off world outpost construction and operation. The has a habitat for similar reasons but the surrounding is not strictly inhospitable. A also called space colony and orbital colony is a which is intended as a permanent settlement rather than as a simple way station or other specialized facility. They would be literal cities in space where people would live and work and raise families. No space habitats have yet been constructed we do not classify all space stations as a space habitat since they are not a replication of the natural environment necessary to sustain a species population they are by definition artificially maintained and temporary but many design ...