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Bezos wants floating colonies in space with weather like Maui all year long
- hsnewman 7y ago1 trillion people living there. Right.
- true_tuna 7y agoKinda buried the lede there “O'Neill colonies would have to be constructed by future generations, as the technology does not exist.”
- _iyig 7y agoOf that nonexistent technology, I’d be less concerned about orbital construction methods and more concerned about sustainment of a closed-loop ecosystem. The closest anyone’s come to running a human-scale test is Biosphere 2, which didn’t go too well: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biosphere_2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biosphere_2
- freeone3000 7y agoI wasn't able to get how it went badly from that article. It seems like there were some management concerns, some factionalization (that didn't turn into anything worse?), and the entire thing looked like a boondoggle, but the major problems seemed to be they got some of the numbers wrong and had to hot-patch it? The takeaway I get from there is that it's theoretically possible, results are promising, but we don't yet have full formulae.
- _iyig 7y agoMainly I was thinking of the second mission, when former crew members vandalized the facility and Steve Bannon (yes, that Steve Bannon) was brought in by the owner to get costs under control. Strange story: https://www.wired.com/2016/12/trumps-chief-strategist-ran-massive-climate-experiment/ https://www.wired.com/2016/12/trumps-chief-strategist-ran-ma... That said, I agree that the results showed potential. I’d love to see a Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk give this idea another shot.
- agumonkey 7y agosolar power in space might be nice, a solar powered bubble could be fun
- freeone3000 7y agoSo do I. What's stopping him?
- ElijahLynn 7y agoPeople in space age faster, something happens to bodies differently there. That needs to be resolved.
- bengerbil 7y agoThat sounds terrible. Weather keeps things exciting. On the other hand, all my concerns about self-serving cars in Canadian winters would go away.
- ElijahLynn 7y agoHas it been concluded that the _sole_ reason bodies age faster is because of lack of real gravity? Any other possibilities?
- JohnJamesRambo 7y agoAren’t they exposed to higher radiation?
- gehwartzen 7y agoThese crazy artist renderings allways get me; wooden barns and acres of single row farming??? Real estate in space isn’t going to be Kansas...everything needs to be super-optimized for size and efficiency (think multi stack vertical hydroponic gardens not some space farmer pulling the John Deer out of the shed)
- olliej 7y agoThis sounds like the major plot in WALL.E