Suburbs in space
Amazon chief delivers bold plan for future of humans..
HE MAY be the richest person on the planet but Amazon boss Jeff Bezos is dreaming of a future in a galaxy far, far away.
The billionaire wants to see humans living on “giant space colonies” rather than settling on the surface of other planets, which he rules out as travel, fuel and energy would be too costly.
Instead, he leans towards a concept depicted in popular sci-fi movies, including the 1968 classic 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Bezos outlined his vision to the Yale Club in New York City, referring to the work of the pioneering physicist Gerard O’Neill.
The late space activist came up with the idea of a cylinder-shaped space settlement known as an “O’Neill cylinder”.
It works by two counterrotating barrels providing gravity for human settlers while stopping the spinning effects.
Bezos said: “I don’t think we’ll live on planets, by the way. I think we’ll live in giant O’Neill-style space colonies.
“Gerard O’Neill, decades ago, came up with this idea.
“He asked his physics students at Princeton a very simple question, but a very unusual one, which is: Is a planetary surface the right place for humanity to expand in the solar system?”
The students did a lot of work, then came back and decided the answer was no, he said.
The colonies would allow the human population to grow to thousands of times more than the 7.7billion on Earth today.
Bezos said: “The solar system can support a trillion humans, and then we’d have 1000 Mozarts and 1000 Einsteins.
“Think how incredible and dynamic that civilisation will be.”
His space suburbs would protect Earth, which he describes as “the gem of the solar system”, as it would be kept for residential purposes and light industries. The colonies would have “many advantages” including the protection of Earth.
It is why he called his space company Blue Origin, after the “blue planet”, where all human life started.
Bezos, worth an estimated £101billion, said: “We want to go to space to protect this planet.”
Blue Origin is working on a transport system to get into space and they plan to land a robotic space cargo carrier on the moon by 2023. Bezos liquidates £750million of his Amazon shares each year to fund his rocket company.
He said the main advantage of colonies would be their proximity to Earth.
“The transit time and the energy required to move between planets is so high,” he said.
“But if you have giant space colonies that are energetically close and, in terms of travel time close to Earth, then people will be able to come and go. Very few people are going to want to leave this planet permanently – it’s just too amazing.”
Taking a swipe at rival Elon Musk’s SpaceX project, which wants to put life on Mars, Bezos said: “My friends who want to move to Mars, I say, ‘Do me a favour, go live on the top of Mount Everest for a year first, and see if you like it.
“Because it’s a garden paradise compared to Mars.”
Bezos thinks heavy industry, such as mining and resource extraction, will move elsewhere in the solar system, leaving Earth in much better shape.
He said: “This planet will be zoned ‘residential and light industry’. We’ll have universities here and so on, but we won’t do heavy industry here. Why would we?
“This is the gem of the solar system. Why would we do heavy industry here? It’s nonsense. “Over time that transition will happen very naturally. If we’re going to have that we do have to go out into the solar system.” But speed is vital, he said. “The fact of the matter is we don’t have forever, and the first step, I don’t know all future steps, but I know one of them is we need to build a low-cost, highly operable, reusable launch vehicle. “No matter which path you take, it has to go through that gate. “That’s a very expensive step. That’s why Blue Origin is focused on it. “I really want that dynamic life and civilisation for our grandchildren’s grandchildren. But we’ve got to get started.” He thanked his Amazon customers for their support. He said: “Every time you buy shoes, you help fund Blue Origin. I appreciate it.”