FAQ

Who are you?
For now you may call me Mr. Dearing. Suffice to say I am a relatively young, male who is solely fluent in English. (Although I can speak odd words of other languages I pick up)
I am not an Engineer, nor am I a scientist (Although astronomy is one of my dearest hobbies), and I am most certainty not a politician. I think that is enough information to be going on with at such an early stage.

What is Project: O’Neill?
Project: O’Neill is my dream of pushing forward humanity’s future by example.
The project is set up in four parts, which are as follows.
The first task will be finding a fuel efficient way to reach the construction site, such as the Ion Drive. Due to an O’Neill Cylinder’s size, you can’t simply build it in orbit, as with the International Space Station. At present, I believe Earth orbit Langrage Point Two (L2) would be a good starting point. (see image below)
The second task would be the construction of an Orbital Elevator in order to easily send up the materials into earth orbit for transport to the construction site. According to a recent theory, this phase in itself could take only ten years (See below).
The third task would actually be the construction of the O’Neill Cylinder itself. This would also include the construction of a temporary station and the construction site, or even possibly on the Moon. During construction of the Orbital Space Elevator, the “land” strips of the cylinder could be constructed on Earth, before being shipped into space. The windows may be more tricky to construct, and due to their size, may have to be constructed in orbit, or on site from materials available in space and on the Moon. (see below)
The final task is the colonisation itself, but this is a task that must be planned accordingly once the cylinder itself is complete.

What is a O’Neill Cylinder?
An O’Neill Cylinder is the largest of three Island type Space stations (After “Island One” Bernal Sphere and “Island Two” Stanford Torus). It was the brain child of physicist Gerard K. O'Neill, and was featured in his book, The High Frontier, as part of his proposal for space colonisation in the Twenty-First Century. Simply put, an O’Neill Cylinder is a large hollow tube, roughly thirty kilometres long, and around three to four kilometres in diameter. the colony itself is comprised of two counter rotating cylinders in order to simulate a Earth like gravity pull, each made up of six strips, three of which are land, which is the area of colonisation, and three of which are windows, through which the sun is reflected through via mirrors hinged onto the back, and by opening each every twelve hours give a natural progression of night and day.
In terms of independence from Earth governments, O’Neill Cylinders were designed with an agricultural ring that rotates at a different rate so that colonists can grow their own food. In addition, O’Neil Cylinders are also equipped with a manufacturing block with little or no gravity at all. This would make construction of larger objects, such as space craft, far easier then if they were constructed on Earth.

What is a Orbital Elevator?
An Orbital Elevator is essentially a giant elevator cable with Earth as the ground floor and a geosynchronous orbiting space station as the first. Once completed, the inertia at the end of the tether counteracts gravity, keeping the cable taut. Using this cable, it would be a simple matter of sending the pieces of the Cylinder up into orbit without wasting fuel. It could also be used as a way of getting colonists up into orbit once the cylinder is completed, and would also mean that ships heading out to the Colony site could be larger and lack the need to by aerodynamic. According to Bradley Edwards, former Director of Research for the Institute for Scientific Research (ISR), based in Fairmont, West Virginia, there is a method of constructing a elevator that would only take the span of a decade. Instead of producing one large cable and firing it up into orbit, Mr. Edwards proposes that to start, a single hair-like 18 metric ton (20 short ton) 'seed' cable is deployed in the traditional way, giving a very lightweight elevator with very little lifting capacity. Once this is done, progressively heavier cables would be pulled up from the ground along it, repeatedly strengthening it until the elevator reaches the required mass and strength. This is much the same technique used to build suspension bridges.
It should be noted however that constructing a elevator like this is not without risks, with satellites, meteors and corrosion by the Van Allen belt to just name a few, and even after construction, I fear such a large construct may become the target of terrorist attacks. However, compared to other earth to space launchers (Mass Driver, Space Fountain, etc,) I strongly believe this design would to it’s designated job best.

What is a Lagrangian Point?

A Lagrangian Point is a location in space where an object can hypothetically remain in place by gravity alone in relation to two larger objects (such as a satellite with respect to the Earth and Moon). It’s kind of complicated to explain, so I suggest you search the web for more information. Suffice to say, Earth Orbit had five of these Lagrangian points, simply named L1-L5.
(See image below)
If it were at all possible, it would be my suggestion for the O’Neill Cylinder to be constructed at L2, which, as you can see, is furthest from the sun, and yet close enough to Earth to ship parts out to the construction site.How would we construct this O’Neill Cylinder?
I am not an engineer. Neither am I a scientist. I am simply a dreamer, and as a dreamer, this is how, in an ideal world, I would see this colony’s construction.
During the construction of the Orbital Elevator, basic construction of the land segments would commence. Due to the sheer scale of the Cylinder, it would be my guess that these segments would actually be made in small manageable parts, perhaps by numerous companies to increase productivity, and then stored until the elevator is complete.
After the elevator has been completed, the segments are then shipped into space, where they are pieced together, either in orbit, or at the construction site. At some point the windows ad mirrors will also be constructed, most likely in the same manner, however the land is priority, as it will house the necessities to live in space, such as life support.

Why an O’Neill Cylinder?
An O’Neill Cylinder is the largest of the three Island colonies. As opposed the Bernal Sphere and Stanford Torus, which can only hold colonists in the thousands and hundred thousands (A Bernal Sphere will hold ten thousand colonists, and a Stanford Torus can hold one hundred and forty thousand colonists) A O’Neill Cylinder can hypothetically support a colony in the millions. The Cylinder is also one of the most recognisable of the three islands, thanks to it’s appearance in science fiction such as Mobile Suit Gundam and Rendezvous with Rama. What I want to do with this project is set an example to humanity. I want people to look up from the ground and to the stars. I want people to stop thinking that space colonisation is something for the future to handle. I want them to start thinking that it is something we can handle. In my opinion, the O’Neill Cylinder is the greatest of the island concepts, and I believe that if people could just see such a majestic object in the night skies, a object created by mankind, they may actually start thinking that the future is closer then they think.

Do you honestly think any major government will allow you or even aid in this Colony’s construction?
Despite what the song says, it’s money, not love, that makes this world go round. It’s a hard fact, but a true one, and one I am trying to change with this project.
The fact of the matter is, to build an O’Neill Cylinder would most likely cost millions, even billions of dollars, pounds, or whatever currency you use.
If I could be perfectly frank for a moment, I do believe that if I took this proposal to any government in the world, right now, they would all reject me, simply because it would cost too much of the tax payers money. It is a well known fact that the only reason man landed on the moon is because the American’s wanted to do it before the Russians did (No offence to Americans, but everyone knows it). If there hadn’t been a Cold War going on, chances are we’d still be staring at the Moon and thinking it was made of cheese. (Well…maybe not, but you know what I mean)
A Government’s duty is to use the money it receives wisely to aid the citizens it represents, and while I am not a politician, I can safely say that very few people within any modern government of today would consider a Space Colony as money well spent.
This however, does not deter me.
For this is why I have not gone to any government alone, and it is why I have set up this website. For I believe that if enough of us come forward, I believe that a government will at least listen to our proposal.
They’ll listen because they have no choice.

Where did this idea come from?
While the idea for space colonisation only came to me a year ago, I personally feel that Project O’Neill began on September 11, 2001.
9/11 was a harsh wake up call for me. Up until that point I’d felt that such a great loss of life was reserved for wars and far away places that didn’t concern me.
But for just under three thousand people to die needlessly, in the heart of one of the largest cities in the world, scared me (Which I presume was the general idea behind the attack, to spread terror), to the point I had nightmares for weeks. It also taught me to take a second look at what humanity is really like.
And I didn’t like what I saw.
With things like the War on terror and the war in Iraq, I began to see mankind as an incredibly volatile species, whose recorded history is full of more times of war and conflict then of peace and prosperity. I saw government officials raise taxes for some of the most trivial of things, claiming they need this money for objectives that either never turn out the way they are proposed, or just to further the evolution of weapons of war.
I saw car companies buy up new improved, inexpensive ways to get from A to B, just because it would ruin their business, while Earth’s own supplies of oil get dangerously low.
It would only be in 2005 however, that I discovered space colonies.
Due to being an avid fan of Japanese anime (Particularity science fiction) I guess it was only a matter of time before I finally discovered the Star Trek of Japan, Mobile Suit Gundam.
Although still filled with violence and conflict (for entertainment purposes), the concept of living in space fascinated me. Also, it was the fact these colonies were literally in outer space, and not on other planets that completely drew me in.
We’ve only explored a small portion of the universe, but every planet we have encountered so far is inhospitable, many even if terraforming was a possibility. If we could actually build these space colonies, the need to find habitable planets would be nearly obsolete (It‘s always good to have solid ground beneath your feet, but it just wouldn‘t restrict us so much).
And so, three years later, I now officially begin Project: O’Neill, in the hope that some day soon, something may fruit from this venture.