The O’Neill Cylinder: Jeff Bezos’ vision for an ‘incredible civilisation’ in space
By: Brian Mcgleenon
Tags: Space, Space Exploration, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Oneill Cylinder

And how Elon Musk scoffed — ‘it makes no sense’

Jeff Bezos and the fantastic Gerard O’Neill space cylinder concept (CREDIT: Rick Guidice, NASA Ames Research Center; color-corrector unknown)

JEFF BEZOS recently outlined his vision for making humanity a multi-planetary species during a secretive event in Washington DC.

His vision revolves around the concept of rotating cylinders in space, many miles in length and breadth that were envisioned by Mr Bezos’ former Princeton professor, Gerard O’Neill. Living in these space-based human habitats, dubbed O’Neill Cylinders, or O’Neill Colonies, may choose to be “an easy choice” claims Mr Bezos, when faced with dwindling resources on Earth and climactic chaos. The habitats, reminiscent of the film Interstellar, could be built close enough to Earth to allow people to travel back and forth, and house “a million people or more each.”

And, according to Bezos, they’d have the “ideal climate” at all times, “like Maui on its best day, all year long.”

The founder of Amazon added: “We get to choose, do we want stasis and rationing, or do we want dynamism and growth?”

Mr Bezos was enthusiastically opening up a debate on space colonisation at the invite-only event in Washington DC on May 9th.

He said: “This is an easy choice.

“We know what we want we just have to get busy.

“If we’re out in the solar system, we can have a trillion humans in the solar system, which means we’d have thousands of Mozarts and thousands of Einsteins.

“This would be an incredible civilization.”

A pair of O’Neill cylinders. NASA ID number AC75–1085 (CREDIT: Rick Guidice NASA Ames Research Center)

Bezos described the structures and said: “These are very large structures, miles on end, and they hold a million people or more each.”

He added: “Some of them would be more recreational, they don’t all have to have the same gravity, they can have a recreational one that keeps it zero-g so you can go flying with your own wings.”

Mr Bezos noted they may replicate cities on Earth or start from scratch with their own futuristic architecture.

And, there would be no rain, no storms, no earthquakes.

The concept was first posited in the 1970s by professor O’Neill, whose proposed habitats would rotate in space to create artificial gravity based on centrifugal force.

But, Elon Musk has mocked Jeff Bezos’ ambitions to be the first tech billionaire to make interplanetary human life possible.

The Tesla and SpaceX boss said on Thursday that Amazon and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos’s idea for how humans will eventually live in space “makes no sense.”

But, Elon Musk was asked for his views on O’Neil structures, the cylindrical orbiting space colonies, that Jeff Bezos had talked about in recent weeks. Mr Musk replied: “Makes no sense.

“Would be like trying to build the USA in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean!”

Mr Bezos’s idea to use self-sufficient, cylindrical structures that float in space, like those designed by Princeton physics professor Gerard O’Neil has been visualised in Science Fiction, such as Christopher Nolan’s film Interstellar.

Island Three cylindrical space habitat, “Endcap view with suspension bridge”. NASA ID Number AC75–1883. (CREDIT: NASA Ames Research Center)

Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos have been involved in a Twitter feud over recent years, but it wasn’t always this way.

Back in 2004, the two CEOs actually had dinner together and talked over ideas.

But, today, instead of passing ideas, they’re berating each other for the world to see on social media.

Both are in a race to make space travel more affordable.

And as each company continues to grow and expand, that race is heating up.

The Amazon founder found time to also criticise Elon Musk’s play for making humanity a multi-planetary species.

(CREDIT: NASA Kennedy from United States)

According to the Business Insider, at a private lecture in NYC in February, Mr Bezos criticised Mr Musk’s goal to colonise Mars, saying that: “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.”

But, behind the scenes, their visions aren’t all that different.

They both want to expand humanity out into the void, so humans can have a bigger bolder