The High Frontier: Human Colonies in Space (Apogee Books Space)

In 1969 America had proved its leadership in human spaceflight but among the nation's youth an anti-technology mindset was growing. Princeton physicist and professor Dr. Gerard K. O'Neill, inventor of the revolutionary colliding-beam storage ring technology that is now the basis of all high energy particle accelerators, asked his students if they could come up with a working space colony system to permanently and happily house tens of thousands of regular people. They dug into the challenge. Soon his small band of students grew to scores of researchers both young and old, all united in the big dream of letting real people have a real choice in their futures. In 1974, Dr. O'Neill put his three-pronged plan of space colonization, space solar power, and large scale space construction into easily accessible form with the release of the book The High Frontier. Fourteen years later, the Space Studies Institute, founded by O'Neill, re-released the original text, unchanged except for the doctor's addition of the Appendix "A View from 1988," and a new preface by astronaut Kathy Sullivan. This is one of the milestone and timeless classics of space habitation, alternative power, and human potential, all made possible with technology we already have. This expanded third edition features a new preface, introduction, and collection of essays by space researchers.