Related Work

1975 design study of an orbiting space colony for a population of 10,000 people

The mission of the NSS is: “To promote social, economic, technological, and political change in order to expand civilization beyond Earth, to settle space and to use the resulting resources to build a hopeful and prosperous future for humanity.” The NSS Space Settlement Nexus includes space settlement videos, a space settlement library of over 30,000 pages and NSS roadmaps for space settlement among other things.

An international conference focusing on facilitating humanity become a space-faring species.

Presentation of an argument for sustainably establishing life beyond Earth. A rapid, low-cost design concept is described consisting of a network of small ecosystems with populations of small animals and plants in terrestrial and aquatic environments in an orbiting centrifuge that can be launched assembled in a single launch.

An adjustably-autonomous intelligent systems approach for developing a connected network of Closed Ecosystems is presented. It includes a design concept and preliminary design details for a Controlled Closed-Ecosystem Development System. An Orbiting Modular Artificial-Gravity Spacecraft design concept is also presented, which enables the deployment of a closed ecosystem in on-orbit in a spacecraft that generates artificial gravity and provides radiation protection to help the ecosystem thrive.

The Living In Space Initiative is an effort by an international coalition of organizations to advocate establishing civilizations beyond Earth by engaging a global audience to ignite discussions and build capacity for human habitation beyond Earth.

Explains what humanity will need to achieve a permanent presence in space

The summit is a forum for those interested in being a part of a collaborative force actively laying the foundation for a sustainable future on the Moon and beyond. The aim of Space Settlement Summit 2026 is to bridge the gap between lunar exploration and commercial reality by tackling the structural frameworks of the cis-lunar economy.

The Modern Day Space Elevator is Closer than You Think! The space elevator concept is similar to a building elevator except that they are being designed to transport the elevator cabin from the Earth’s surface near the equator to a station in geosynchronous orbit that orbits directly above the elevator base on Earth. A tether connects a base on Earth and the station in orbit such that the elevator car can travel between them powered by electricity and no propellant is required.

The Modular Artificial-Gravity Orbital Refinery Spacecraft is a novel, patented NASA technology for in-situ refining and recycling of materials in space, including mass from asteroids, Mars moons, orbiting "space junk" debris, and for in-situ creation of products from operations in low or micro-gravity environments.

Mission architecture to colonize Mars using the SpaceX Starship

SpaceX mission: To build the systems and technologies necessary to make life multiplanetary, to understand the true nature of the universe, and to extend the light of consciousness to the stars.

Interested skilled persons are invited to engage in the 5-year NSS artificial-gravity Orbital Space Settlement Design Project. The end goal of this five year effort is a complete engineering design for the first rotating space settlement in cislunar space.

SpaceX Starship with Mars mission concept video

The design concept of a modular and extensible 2G hypergravity facility is presented. Several benefits of this facility are described including that the facility is suitable as a full-scale artificial-gravity space-settlement ground analog for humans, animals, and plants for indefinite durations.

Sustainably Establishing Life Beyond Earth is an capital-intensive, long-term effort. Ground prototypes are one way to closed ecosystems for future deployment in space. However, there are low-cost, short-term approaches for developing and deploying in space small closed-ecosystems on small spacecraft that could mitigate risks and provide development direction earlier in the process. This PhD thesis discusses such an approach.