Everything to know about O'Neill Cylinder

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Everything to know about O'Neill Cylinder

New ideas always bring controversy with them, sometimes they are also concluded as orthodoxy. The same scenario is with outer space habitations. Some believe humans can't live and reproduce in outer space, while some hope for the future. Gerard O'Neill in 1974 published an article showing the possibility of outer space habitations in the 21st century through O'Neill cylinders. O'Neill was a strong believer in outer space habitations. In 1969, he predicted that humans will move outside the Earth. According to O'Neill:

  • Humans can colonize space without damaging or harming anyone and without polluting anything.
  • If we start working today, then within a century, we can move our industrial activities away from the Earth's fragile biosphere.
  • Such migration of people and industries will encourage self-efficiency and will increase cultural diversity and degree of independence. 
  • If we colonize space then the human race could expand by 20,000 times the present value. 
O'Neill believed that our colonization must bring economical stability in the present situation. Colonization will increase our capability of using natural resources. Humans need air, water, land, food, energy and gravity to live normally. Solar energy can cover our needs of energy and rotational acceleration could create gravity. O'Neill believed that we could use the resources and energy available in space for colonization. This could increase our productivity by many times. However, to develop a colony in space, hundreds of rules of Physics must be followed and taken care of. 

O'Neill did deep research and proposed a cylindrical space colony. The design and geometry of the colony were such that it met the following conditions: 
  1. Normal Gravity
  2. Normal day-night cycle
  3. Natural Sunlight
  4. Solar Power
  5. Earth-like appearance
The most effective geometrical design would be a pair of cylinders, each with a length of about 10 km. Inside these cylinders, the entire area would be Earth-like, that is having trees, parklands, lakes, rocks, forests etc. These would also make it possible for animals and birds to live in that cylinder. He proposed to use materials available on the Moon. The Moon is the home of a large amount of titanium and aluminium. So most of the parts of cylinders will be made up of these two. 

No upper limit was set for the length of the cylinders. However, O'Neill calculated the mass and proposed the design for cylinders of lengths 1 km, 3.2 km, 10 km and 32 km. The use of small length cylinders would be economical and we could create an Earth-like atmosphere in a better way. The length of day and night is controlled by the opening and closing of main mirrors. These mirrors rotate with the main cylinder. These mirrors also set average temperature and seasonal variations. 

Endangered birds and animals can easily grow their populations in such cylinders. Agricultural areas and industrial areas are constructed in separate cylinders, away from the living areas. The formation of clouds will also take place in such cylinders. An average of 50% humidity, temperature range of 0 degrees to 32 degrees Celsius and clouds height will range from 1100 m to 1400 m. Selected and sterile seeds can be grown on agricultural land with any use of pesticides or other chemicals. However, we might not get a wide variety of fruits, flowers and vegetables like on Earth. The best example of artificial agricultural land is shown in the movie 'The Martian', where an astronaut (Mark Watney) easily grows potatoes inside his lab-like building. 

The wide solar panels will work more efficiently in outer space than on Earth. The panels mounted on the cylinder could easily generate 120 kW of energy for each person. The total energy generated by each cylinder would be 36,000 megawatts if thermal efficiency is 33%. The harmful radiations from the Sun will be sent back by powerful infrared radiators. In other words, these radiators will perform the work of the Ozone layer. Apart from these radiators, an atmosphere will automatically be created by human activities, which would provide extra protection. 

One of the most important concepts for the construction of such cylinders is the coupling of two cylinders by cable. This system must have zero angular momentum so that the axis of cylinders is always pointed towards the Sun without the use of any thrusters. The cylinders must rotate continuously to create artificial gravity. About 560,000 horsepower is needed to keep rotating the cylinders for 3 years. This power is about 3% of the total power generated by the cylinders. The two cylinders would be 90 km apart. This provides easy transportation and communication between the two cylinders. "Cable Cars", just like ropeways can be used to travel from one cylinder to another. 

Bicycles and electric cars will be the best mode of transportation. These cylinders can also play a vital role in the preservation of culture and languages. A group of people from specific culture can be sent to these cylinders. This will eventually lead to better development of cultural values. In his article, O'Neill said that these colonies could possibly solve all the human problems except one, the territorial wars. These territorial wars could possibly damage the life inside these colonies. He also proposed to ban the use of firearms inside the colonies to maintain peace and harmony. 

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