INTRODUCTION

Imagine yourself high above the earth, floating in space towards a slowly rotating donut shaped structure. The spacecraft you are in docks in the middle of the donut, and you proceed into the structure. A few minutes later you are finally home. This is the world of orbiting space colonies such as the ones in the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. Only this space colony, Terra Nova, exists beyond the year 2001.

The idea of colonizing space using orbital space settlements has existed for many years. Such great scientists and thinkers as Tsiolkovsky, Werner Von Braun, Arthur C. Clarke, and Gerard O'Neill have all contributed to the space colonization movement. The first written account of a space colony appeared in 1869, and, over the years, the idea has evolved tremendously. Many books and reports have been written in detail about the feasibility of the space colony but so far, none have been constructed.

The closest mankind has come to establishing a space settlement, or any place where people live in space, is the creation of the space station. However, the fact that actual space cities have not yet been created doesn't mean that it cannot be done, only that we have many problems to solve first. Space stations must eventually expand into large space cities capable of holding many people. Space transportation and space industries must also be improved. The space settlement concept can be achieved, but it will most likely be in the future, beyond 2001.

My primary inspiration for this project came from reading a novel entitled Rendezvous With Rama by Arthur C. Clarke. This dealt with humans encountering a large rotating cylinder in space that contained artificial gravity, an atmosphere, and other things needed by humans to survive. Then, I stumbled across a space colony design contest sponsored by NASA, and the idea for my project was set.

I believe it is in mankind's best interests to colonize space. We must not just go on brief, short-sighted trips into space as we have done in the past (eg. The Apollo program), but instead we must settle space, live, exist and grow there. Life in a space colony offers many advantages to mankind. It offers all the benefits of space while maintaining the comforts of home. Space is our future, and we must begin planning for its settlement now.

That is why I decided to create my own example of an orbital space colony. The exact definition of a space colony is a settlement built in space which uses terrestrial and extraterrestrial resources, has a closed-in, artificial biosphere and orbits a planet or a moon. The name of my space colony is "Terra Nova." That means "new earth" in Latin - for the colonization of space is essentially creating new places in which humans may live.

METHOD

Researching information on space colonies was a very large part of my project. Before I could design my own colony, I had to see what variables needed to be considered and how scientists had designed space colonies in the past. Most of this information is relatively new, so the Internet proved to be a better place to research than the library. NASA has set up a reference site dedicated solely to space colonies. That was my primary source of information. Another web page that gave me a lot of facts was the complete Summer Study done in 1975 by NASA-Ames on the feasibility of space colonies. The rest of my research was completed by searching for books on that subject in the library, and magazine and newspaper articles also relating to it.

[Index] [Introduction] [Purpose] [Construction/Design] [Transportation] [Location] [Human Element] [Conclusion] [Acknowledgements] [Bibliography]