Jeff Bezos: people have to colonize not only the planet but also outer space

Elon Musk has long been burning with the idea of colonizing Mars. For the implementation of your project, it performs a number of space projects, including the creation of super-heavy carrier rocket that could send humans to Mars. Some scientists and enthusiasts believe that the colonization of Mars is difficult, you first need to settle on the moon. And then using it as a staging base to start gradually and send people to the red planet and other objects in the Solar system.

Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, has everything on it's own point of view. It seems that people have to colonize not only the planet but also outer space. Of course, man cannot live in outer space, so to implement this idea is necessary manned space station. For example, the cylinders O Pieces.

Gerard kitchen O'neill, a scientist at Stanford University, who in 70-ies has proposed its own draft of a future space colony. It was originally proposed to modify the Scope of Bernal. In the view O Pieces of the space station for settlers needs to provide a structure with a diameter of 500 meters, which would be spun at a speed of 1.9 revolutions per minute, providing artificial gravity. Internal landscape areas is at the equator of the sphere, and there can comfortably accommodate a thousand people. The project was named "Island one".

After some time, O'neill proposed the concept of "Island two". This enlarged station with a diameter of 1800 meters. Favorable for life inside the station made up would have a circumference of 6.5 kilometers. To stay here might 140000 colonists.



Finally, after some time O'neill wrote the book "the High frontier", where he proposed the concept of "Island three". It should be a station in the form of two cylinders rotating in opposite directions. The diameter of each cylinder is about 8 km in length and 32 kilometers. Both cylinders, according to O Pieces must be linked through the system of bearings. The rotation of the cylinder creates artificial gravity almost equal to earth. For the promotion of the cylinders need energy. Power source capable of rotation, should be about 360 MW.

On the inner surface of the cylinder, in the opinion of the author of the project, it would be possible to place whole forests, lakes and rivers. In such a station it would be possible to control the temperature and climate, to manage the change of seasons. The mass of the "Island of three" in case of its construction amounted to 500,000 tons. The construction of such a station at the prices of the 70-ies of the last century would have gone about 100 billion US dollars.

Interestingly, in the film "interstellar" shows the station, which is similar to the implementation of ideas O Pieces. A similar idea has been used by many authors of science fiction.


Bezos had the idea of creating the station for the colonists in the open space since the 80-ies of the last century, when he was a student at Princeton University. Now, three decades later, its financial resources allow to start the implementation of their ideas. Of course, before the creation of the station is still very far away, so now Bezos is working with only one space project. He founded Blue Origin, engaged in space tourism. The company is already several months testing the return rocket New Shepard, which, however, only makes a suborbital flight. But the plans of Bezos and much more ambitious projects. For example, the development of space launch system Bew Glenn and develop a super-rocket New Armstrong.

The head of Amazon, has told that wants to create a set of stations where they lived and worked millions of people. For this, according to entrepreneur, you need a reliable system of freight into space, otherwise colonize space will not work. If such a system is established, the cost of sending cargo into space is significantly reduced.


"And then we can see how the ideas of Gerard O Pieces are brought to life," says Bezos. "The dreamers go first. It's always the authors of science fiction. They think of everything first, then come those who make the plans a reality. But it takes time."

According to Bezos, in a few hundred years all heavy industry will be removed from the Earth into space. Here, in open space, there is free energy — the sun's rays, in addition, there is yet an inexhaustible source of resources — asteroids and mine minerals on other planets.

The businessman believes that in open space people will find their second home. And send millions of people to Mars just makes no sense. "I don't like the idea that we should have a "Plan B" and find a spare planet... We've sent probes to every planet in the Solar system, and believe me, this is the best planet. There is no doubt. And we have to protect," said Bezos.

Who will be right in the end? Bezos, Musk, or someone else? It is difficult to say will have to wait a couple hundred years to find out.

Source: geektimes.ru/post/282102/