Uh, probably like most other people here I have to disagree. It's quite likely that rings in one form or another will succeed. They are a simple and efficient d

Uh, probably like most other people here I have to disagree. It's quite likely that rings in one form or another will succeed. They are a simple and efficient design. From space stations to rings around planets to rings around stars there are many levels possible. And some of the assumptions loook clearly wrong to me. Like the amount of energy to increase the speed of an object of that size is certainly huge, but it's much easier in space than on earth. On earth the faster you want to go the more energy you ned for every additional kmh, but in space you don't have all that annoying atmosphere to wiggle through. So you really just need a constant amount of energy until you've reached your target speed and then you just need to correct the speed and direction here and there. The reasoning about the vast amount of ressources needed is correct but not that much a problem, imho. No matter what you do. If you want to put millions of people into space you need to invest a lot. But we certainly reach that capability one day. Last but not least, one thing were a ring is much much better than a terraformed planet: Let's say we want to travel to another galaxy. Then having a ring it's much easier to travel there than trying to move a planet out of its orbit.