The High Frontier: Human Colonies in Space [Hardcover]

Gerard K. O'Neill (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1976

This expanded third edition features a new preface, introduction, and collection of essays by space researchers.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com 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.

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 --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

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.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow & Co; First Edition edition (December 1976)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0688031331
• ISBN-13: 978-0688031336
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.7 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,240,348 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book on practicality of space colonization, August 19, 1997

By 

Brooke P. Anderson (USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: High Frontier: Human Colonies in Space (Paperback)

THE HIGH FRONTIER is an excellent book on the practicality andeconomics of the human colonization of space -- very entertaining toread and full of interesting technical information. It is the classic work on the subject -- highly regarded by folks such as Carl Sagan, Isaac Asimov, and Thomas Paine (former administrator of NASA). When this influential book was first published, it changed a lot of minds throughout the world. Is human colonization of space achievable even with 1970's-1980's technology? Could it be profitable on a global-economic scale? The author thinks so and tells us why and how; and his credentials are impressive. The author, Dr. Gerard K. O'Neill, was a tenured professor of physics at Princeton and one of the founders of the Geostar Satellite Corporation (a company that worked on implementing GPS satellites). Many of the conclusions in the book are backed up by actual experiment and by numerous studies done both within and without NASA. This is one of the handful of books that have helped to shape my outlook on the future of mankind -- a strong statement reserved for an excellent and influential work. -- Brooke P. Anderson

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding, a must-have for every reader., April 20, 2001

By 

J. Strout (Downers Grove, IL United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The High Frontier: Human Colonies in Space: Apogee Books Space Series 12 (Paperback)

This book is amazing. This 3rd edition has two parts: the first is the original text by the late Gerard O'Neil, one of the great visionaries of the 20th century. Though things did not develop in the time scale he hoped for, his message is as valid today as it was in 1980 -- or even more so. The second part of the book is a series of chapters by contemporary leaders in the aerospace industry, and provide a fresh, modern perspective on where we've come since O'Neil's day, where we need to go, and how to get there.

The emphasis of this book is more on what we need to do, why we need to do it, and what that would be like, than on the details of "how." Other books cover the "how" in more detail. But because of the focus of this one, it is easily read by anyone; no special technical or math skills are required.

After reading only part of this book, I did some web searches and found that the concept of space solar power (which is central to O'Neil's thesis) is still very much alive today. NASA did a new study on it just a couple years ago, and it has been discussed in Congress increasingly often since then. It is a very real concept, very nearly ready for implementation. Read this book to find out why it's so very important.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not much new, February 9, 2002

By 

Alex "alexterrell" (Hilzingen Deutschland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The High Frontier: Human Colonies in Space: Apogee Books Space Series 12 (Paperback)

O'Niell's writings (the first 12 chapters) are as well written and exciting as ever. His vision of how humanity should enter space is unsurpassed, despite now being some 25 years old.

The additional chapters don't seem to add too much. I was hoping for a good description of where we've got to, and how things have changed. For example, in O'Niell's time, the richness, number and accessibility of Near Earth Asteroids was not known, but there is little in the book on the how these could be used to make O'Niell's original vision easier to fulfill. Likewise, Tether technology could reduce Earth launch costs and bring the vision closer to reality. None of this is covered.

John Lewis has a good section on Space Law, but to see new ideas from him, you have to read "Mining the Sky"

Overall, if you've never read The High Frontier, this book is an excellent buy. If you've already got the previous edition at home, the six chapters don't add too much, and there's better information on the internet.