The High Frontier: Human Colonies in Space - Hardcover
Describes the future high-orbital manufacturing facilities now in the planning stage, explaining how they will be placed in orbit, how they will operate, who will work in them, and how living conditions will be controlled and sustained. Bibliogs
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Review:
Rocket man, I think it's going to be a long, long time. When Princeton physicist Gerard K. O'Neill published the first edition of High Frontier back in the mid 1970s (just four years after "Rocket Man," to be exact), he just assumed that some of us would be living in orbit by now. Or as the Space Studies Institute's George Friedman puts it in a new essay for this third edition of O'Neill's pioneering work, the L5 society's slogan "L5 in '95!" certainly wasn't referring to 2095.
About the Author:
In High Frontier, O'Neill had mapped out a straightforward, manifestly doable path to putting humans into space permanently and sustainably, using 1970s materiel and current-day Zubrin-style know-how. But O'Neill died in 1992 seeing humanity no closer to fulfilling his bold vision. Freeman Dyson points out in a new introduction to this edition that in many ways we've actually backslided, that the International Space Station (and the current role of NASA) is "not a step forward on the road to the High Frontier. It's a big step backward, a setback that will take decades to overcome."
But O'Neill's idea of pursuing an inexhaustible energy supply (solar power in space) and endless room to expand remains tantalizingly attractive. The science has only gotten easier, and the moral imperative has only become more pronounced, with the planet's resources ever steadily squeezed and the recent knowledge that a mass-extinction event on Earth is nearly inevitable. (O'Neill calls the High Frontier the only chance to make human life--perhaps all life in the universe--"unkillable.") The High Frontier is as exciting a read as it ever was, and six new chapters provide context for the advances made in the 25 years since O'Neill's original manifesto. But perhaps the best addition to this printing is the chance to see and hear the soft-spoken physicist himself, in more than an hour of MPEG video included on the CD-ROM. --Paul Hughes
Gerard K. O’Neill, PhD, was a faculty member of the physics department at Princeton University. He founded the Space Studies Institute and invented the storange ring technique for colliding particle beams.
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- PublisherWilliam Morrow & Co
- Publication date1976
- ISBN 10 0688031331
- ISBN 13 9780688031336
- BindingHardcover
- Edition number1
- Number of pages288
- Rating
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The High Frontier Human Colonies in Space
Published by
William Morrow & Co
(1976)
ISBN 10: 0688031331
ISBN 13: 9780688031336
Used
Hardcover
First Edition
Signed
Quantity: 1
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Very Good+. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. First Edition; First Printing. O'Neill's widely known work about the space community program. A scarce first edition first printing.The book with a light lean, rubbing and toning. Jacket with rubbing, toning, a few small stains, minor wear to the edges, and two small closed tears near the crown. Binding tight. In original unclipped ($8.95) dust jacket by Rick Giudice. Illustrated with black and white plates. Inscribed by the author on the half title: "With very best wishes to Stanley C. Dorr. - Gerard K. O'Neill 5/9//77." Photos upon request. International shipping billed at cost.; 8vo 8" - 9" tall; 288 pages; Signed by Author. Seller Inventory # 88939
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US$ 900.00
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THE HIGH FRONTIER: Human Colonies in Space
Published by
William Morrow and Company, Inc, New York
(1977)
ISBN 10: 0688031331
ISBN 13: 9780688031336
Used
Hardcover
First Edition
Signed
Quantity: 1
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Condition: Very good in very good jacket. First printing. Rare inscribed first edition of the particle physicist's exposition of his famous solution to the housing shortage and the climate crisis: energy-saving space colonies, conveniently parked between Earth and the Moon. O'Neill's proposal for human space colonies involved a series of cylinders suspended between the earth and moon at a point called LaGrange Point 5. Presented as a way to combat environmental degradation, his iconic designs (reproduced here) have gone on to have a much larger influence on many filmmakers and writers. As writer David Pescovitz wrote of HIGH FRONTIER, it "captures the wonder and sense of possibility that permeated our culture after the first moon landing and into the 1970s." The first printing of this, his landmark book, is uncommon, and it is rare signed - especially in the year of publication. 8'' x 5.5''. Original quarter blue cloth with black boards. Tiffany blue endpapers. In original unclipped ($8.95) dust jacket by Rick Giudice. Illustrated with black and white plates. 288 pages. Inscribed by the author on the half title: "With very best wishes to Eugenia Fernandez, and hopes that Brazil may join in the thrust toward the high frontier. - Gerard K. O'Neill 3/1/77." Minor wear and toning to jacket. Small closed tear to lower edge rear spine fold with tape repair to verso. Some sunning to edges of book, a few pages slightly dog-eared. Else clean and sound. Seller Inventory # 50294
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