Space Colonies

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With increasing population on the Earth, someday we will have to go elsewhere to live. We may have to live in outer space.

With energy and resources getting used up too quickly, space would be our only choice. This would be quite a challenge for humans.

In the future, space could become full of huge objects to house million of space colonies. These colonies would have environments that generate their own gravity!

Since the early 1970's, scientists have thought about what a space colony would look like. Scientists are now developing new super-strong materials. These materials could one day be used to build gigantic elevators connecting space colonies with the Earth's surface.

Even farther into the future, colonies could be built around the sun. These colonies would be made out of materials that orbit the sun between Mars and Jupiter.

Descriptions of Colonies

This colony has pairs of giant spinning cylinders. These cylinders are many miles in length and diameter.

Spherical Colony
Image of space colony at http://ccf.arc.nasa.gov/dx/basket/pix/76965_1m.jpg courtesy of NASA. Permission at http://www.nasa.gov/gallery/photo/guideline.html

This second colony is a medium-size sphere. Terraces inside the sphere would provide a surface where people could live and farm. If you were looking up inside one of these spheres, you would see the ''land'' curving in a circle above you.

 

Torus (Wheel) Colony

Image of space colony at http://ccf.arc.nasa.gov/dx/basket/pix/76_525m.jpg courtesy of NASA. Permission at http://www.nasa.gov/gallery/photo/guideline.html

This third colony has room for only a few thousand people. The people would live on an outer surface of a rotating ring. Elevators inside would transport the people that lived there.

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Space Exploration of the Past, Present, and Future
Bartlett Elementary School 2000