In the 21st century scientists from the United States of America discovered an asteroid on a collision course with Earth. Rather than choosing to simply cause the object to miss Earth they saw an opportunity. They determined to capture the asteroid and make it the very first Space Habitat or Spabitat. They looked on it as a gift from god so they named it Namiyah.
The scientists used solar reflectors and bags of water to turn the asteroid into the very first Bernal sphere spabitat. They placed it in the fourth LaGrange point in the Earth-Moon system.
The Namiyah was instrumental in the development of the moon as a mining center and as a factory town in itself. Soon the combination of Namiyah and the moon made Solar Power Satellites (SPSs) practical and profitable. This brought prosperity to even the poorest corner of the Earth and increasingly more people to space.
Other spabitats sprang up around Namiyah in L4. Many designs were tried as the moon was mined for materials and the Earth for people.
Finally the O’Neill cylinder was perfected at a time when man began outgrowing the lunar supplies and the asteroid belt was opened.
L5 was opened to an all O’Neill cylinder planned community. Today that community consists of fifty spabitats and over fifty million people.
- Excerpted from Encyclopedia Solaria fifth edition
No comments:
Post a Comment