13 thoughts on “The High Frontier”

1. Although a great book for popularizing the idea of space habitats it really is showing its age. But its a good read I would recommend it as so many folks are unfamiliar with what Dr. O’Neill actually proposed in terms of space settlement.

   But the book I would really like to see the SSI put in Kindle format would be

   http://www.amazon.com/Islands-space-The-challenge-planetoids/dp/B0007DZSR0/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1366483306&sr=8-4&keywords=dandridge+cole

   Islands in space: The challenge of the planetoids,
   Dandridge M Cole and Donald W. Cox (1964)

   His discussion and plans of building space habitats using asteroid resources is really timely given the recent emergence of firms like Planetary Resources and Deep Space Industries. He also went into detail on social implications as well, having inventing the term “Macrolife” for humanity’s transition to living in space habitat based societies.

   Since Dandridge Cole died in 1965 its probably long out of copyright. It would be a great book for the SSI to preserve in Kindle format that would link Dr. O’Neill’s work to a larger vision for settling the Solar System and the space beyond.

2. Another interesting book is “Habitable Planets for Man” by Stephan H. Dole. Available for free a PDF. Now that we can detect extrasolar planets it will be interesting to see how it holds up.

3. Thanks- just downloaded my copy!

4. This one changed my life too. I admit its dated, especially with O’Neill’s reliance of Shuttle technology (and government funding in general) in the early parts of space colony development. Over all though, it’s a very inspirational work.

   1. Chris,

      Yes, one thing Dr. O’Neill does deserves credit for is how well he and his students promoted the idea beyond the traditional space community.

      As I noted before I first ran across the idea in 1969 after reading Isaac Asimov’s essay “No Place like Spome” in his book of collected essays, “Is anybody there?”. I then researched it further by tracking down a copy of “Islands in Space” via the local library. But you had to be a real fan of the space literature and aerospace history to have been aware of it, whereas Dr. O’Neill bought the idea of space settlement beyond planetary surfaces to the attention of the general public who really only had a knowledge of Apollo and NASA during the era.

      I thought he applied the basic concepts of the idea well in developing a view of space habitats the general public could relate to positioning it well relative to the environmental worries of the era. Actually that is why I expect it took off the way it did, it was such a contrast to the doom and gloom views the future the environmentalists were selling.

5. Since Dandridge Cole died in 1965 its probably long out of copyright.

   Why? Wouldn’t his heirs have renewed the copyright? Unless a work appeared before 1922 it is very likely to still be under copyright.

   1. If you look on Amazon for the Dandridge Colr book Beyond Tomorrow (the “gateway” book of Dandridge Cole writings) you will see a review by his son. There are comments attached to that review concerning ownership for Cole’s works in relation to a re-issue of that book and Islands In Space. I agree that Cole’s islands in Space and his Macro-Life articles in Space World were and are absolutely stunning – they, and the works of Harry Stine are what made O’Neill interesting to me.

      1. Robert,

         Yes, it sounds like his son would be interested in having them made into new editions so his father could get the credit he earned for his ideas. He was really ahead of his time.

6. Thanks, copy obtained too.

   Someone needs to write a few chapters of modern perspective for this.

   1. Oh by the way – one of the modern grand masters of space opera sci fi, Iain M. Banks features O’Neill ideas at a super scale in his Culture series of books. In “Look to Windward” something very much like Island One is a central plot character.

7. If it were permissible for sci-fi to be about people just living their lives (see previous post about why tv sci-fi continues to suck), I’d love to watch one set on an O’Neill colony.

   1. How long before movie studios can afford to film scenes in real micro-gravity?

      [An actual transterrestrial musing I note.]

      1. Ken,

         They already have, unless you mean in orbital space.

         http://web.media.mit.edu/~raffik/zero-g/press-overview-jan26.html

         [[[The KC-135a was used in the filming of Apollo 13 by director Ron Howard — all scenes of weightlessness were filmed aboard the KC-135a where weightless consitions can be reproduced.]]]

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