Colonizing Space, Issue #1: Spin Gravity Is Essential and Non-Negotiable

The space station in 2001: A Space Odyssey. This seemed so plausible in the 1960’s, but now we know better: it’s simply too small. If it spun quickly enough to provide spin gravity equivalent to Earth’s normal gravity, steel construction like that probably wouldn’t be strong enough — the station might well fly apart.

Consider the space station. Not just any ol’ spaceborne habitat like the International Space Station or China’s Tiangong space station, but one that really inspires dreams of humanity reaching for the stars — like one above from 2001: A Space Odyssey. What’s the most important feature of that iconic space station? The fact that (at least in the movie) it rotates…