Dreaming Big with Gerard K. O’Neill

The name Gerard K. O’Neill doesn’t have the same name recognition as some more famous space popularizers such as Wernher von Braun, Gene Roddenberry, Sally Ride, and George Lucas. Even though he was never as well-known as those names, O’Neill contributed greatly to furthering the ideas of space flight for the post-Apollo era of the 1970s.  Gerard K. O’Neill’s books, from The High Frontier: Human Colonies in Space to 2081: A Hopeful View of the Human Future, along with his various entrepreneurial efforts such as Geostar Corporation and VSE International, were inspirational efforts to show humanity could achieve a brighter future.  These efforts by O’Neill served to bring back the optimism which had colored the first era of the Space Age and the golden age of science fiction works from writers like Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, and Arthur C. Clarke.

The Endless Possibilities of the High Frontier

Gerard K. O’Neill, like many scientists of his generation, viewed the United States space program, particularly the Apollo missions, with great interest.  When NASA allowed citizen scientists to become astronauts in 1966, O’Neill jumped at the chance.  Unfortunately, he did not make the cut, but that rejection didn’t stop him. 

O’Neill saw that many of the students he taught as a physics professor at Princeton were becoming disillusioned with the space program and the application of science for the betterment of humanity.  The one major factor for this cynicism was the escalation of the Vietnam War.  To keep his students engaged, O’Neill used examples from the Apollo program to relate how they applied to elementary physics.  These lessons sparked his students’ interest, culminating with this question posed during a bonus seminar: Is a planet’s surface the right place for a space-faring civilization to colonize?  His students answered no.  This answer would lead to O’Neill’s conceptualization of space colonies.  In the next few years, O’Neill and his students would design what would become the idea of self-supporting space colonies in free space.  These would consist of large, pressurized structures that would utilize centrifugal force via counter-rotating cylinders to help stimulate Earth’s gravity.  The population of these colonies would live on the inner surface of these structures which would be in either a cylindrical or spherical shape.  This theoretical design would later be called an O’Neill cylinder. 

Throughout the 1970s, O’Neill would expand upon the idea of the free-standing space colonies through papers, conferences, and a book.  His 1974 paper “The Colonization of Space” argued that building space colonies would fix the most pressing issues facing humanity at that time.  These issues included lifting up everyone to an equal living standard of the world’s wealthiest people, protecting Earth’s environment from the damage caused by pollution, creating quality living space for a population that at that time was doubling every 35 years, finding clean energy sources, and prevent the Earth from overheating.  In 1977, O’Neill’s idea of space colonies reached its apex with the publication of The High Frontier. 

This book utilized fictional accounts of space settlers to explain how to build space colonies.  This process consisted of utilizing raw materials from the Moon’s surface and near-earth asteroids being launched into space through a mass driver.  Once the habitats were constructed, they would spin to simulate gravity and get their power from the sun.  To sell this idea, the book used illustrations from artists Don Davis, Rick Guidice, and Chesley Bonestell to show the wonderous possibilities of free-standing space colonies.  Seeing these illustrations in The High Frontier created a sense of what the United States space program could be after the Apollo missions.  It also helped that these illustrations evoked the aesthetics of optimistic science fiction works such as 2001 and Star Trek.

Though the United States and the world have yet to build the kind of space colonies O’Neill had proposed, the influence of The High Frontier is reflected in works from the anime franchise Mobile Suit Gundam, the 2013 film Elysium, and the 1990s science fiction series Babylon 5.

O’Neill the Entrepreneur

Outside of the academy, Gerard K. O’Neill utilized his scientific endeavors from the realm of space in various business enterprises.  In the early 1980s, he founded the Geostar Corporation to create a satellite position determination system for tracking aircraft.  This business was a forerunner to the numerous GPS businesses that operate today.

In the early 1990s, O’Neill started a business that would try to bring to fruition a technological “driver of change” that he had outlined in his 1981 book, 2081: A Hopeful View of the Human Future.  Specifically, it concerned magnetic trains which would provide fast travel from one destination to another.

These futuristic trains were to be vactrains, which instead of being on railroad tracks would utilize an electromagnetic force on a single track in a tube.  Said tube would use electromagnetic forces to propel the vactrains.  With such a system, a vactrain would be able to go 2,500 mph (4,000 km/h).  If air was absent from the tunnel, it would allow the vactrain to accelerate for the first half of a trip, and then deaccelerate during the second half.  This would result in a ground transportation system that would go about one-half the force of gravity. 

In November 1991, O’Neill filed a patent for this vactrain system and created a company that he named VSE International (VSE was an acronym for velocity, silence, and efficiency).  With VSE International, O’Neill envisioned his company creating a network of vactrain tunnels and stations across the country to bring about what he termed “magnetic flight.” 

Unfortunately, this business idea would not get off the ground.  Gerard K. O’Neill died from leukemia in April 1992 and his patent for the vactrain system was not granted until 1994.

O’Neill’s Legacy

In the world of 2022, we have not achieved the ideas Gerard K. O’Neill dreamed about in his writings and business ventures.  However, that doesn’t mean humanity hasn’t been trying to fulfill O’Neill’s futuristic dreams.  Jeff Bezos’ space company Blue Origin is heavily influenced by the book The High Frontier to create the infrastructure needed for space colonization, while the company Magplane Technology continues O’Neill’s work on magnetic flight and vactrains. 

Gerard K. O’Neill aimed high with his ideas on how space travel could better humanity.  Though his ideas have yet to be fully realized, his work continues to be an inspiration to space scientists who will endeavor to turn his works from science fiction into science fact. 

Digital materials from the Gerard K. O'Neill Collection in the National Air and Space Museum Archives can be found in the Smithsonian Online Virtual Archives.