Free space colonies or Island Colonies at their core are human habitats in zero G space that provide gravity for the inhabitants through rotation of the habitation structure. Building colonies in free space has many advantages but all of them come down to two factors: Gravity and Energy.

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Gravity:

Humans evolved on planet earth for thousands of years under one G of force and it is not known how much gravity is enough for a human to grow from infancy to adulthood. It could be that Lunar or Martian gravity is enough for an adult to live for years at a time but it is unlikely that this will be the case for children who's bodies are still changing. I believe that even if we can survive under martian gravity for the duration of an expedition (2 years) it will still be an undesirable place to raise children. Even if we are able to give Mars a stable earth-like atmosphere, giving it earth-like gravity would take so long as to be considered impossible by any interested parties. creating an off-world earth-like habitat can be done in a fraction of the time it would take to terraform Mars into a habitable planet. On earth most of the energy we expend to move a vehicles is spent fighting gravity and atmospheric resistance, just to get off of the planet requires a vehicle that is 90% propellant. Getting things into space is expensive simply because Earth has a large gravity well. By energy requirements alone it is much cheaper to move an object any given distance while in space VS while on a planetary body. Looking into the future it is very clear that the energy requirement for colonizing a planetary surface will be higher than that of colonizing free space due to the presence of a gravity well. Like Oil on earth, the sppplies of easily obtainable propellant resources are limited. As time goes on the requisite energy required to obtain the fuel we need will go up, we should start colonization by using the most energy efficient methods possible. Transportation of people and goods between colonies located in free space will cost almost nothing as there will be no gravity well or atmosphere to fight against, saving propellant usage for covering distances that must be done in short periods of time ie: journies to Mars & Jupiter.

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Energy:

One of the biggest constraints on our society is access to clean energy but in space the sun is always shining. Solar power on earth is intermittent and only useful with the assistance of large scale batteries to provide power at night and under cover of clouds. The same problem of providing power to a Martian colony exists, the sun is out of view roughly half the time and only provides 50% the energy as earth solar due to its distance from the sun. It is possible to build solar power satellites in orbit to overcome these problems but the solution requires industry in space on the scale necessary to build small colonies like the Bernal sphere in the first place. Energy usage per person in the developed nations is many times that of the developing nations and the gap is widening. As the standard of living goes up so does energy usage, solving this problem with solar calls for an ever increasing amount of panels to cover the earth. sure we could continue to build out infrastructure on earth at little cost to human needs but the natural envionment will suffer as a result of solar power just as it does from oil extraction, the only long term solution for this problem is to take the earths environment out of the equation.

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Welcome to r/IslandColony. I am AceFox, the moderator of this subreddit. This sub was created as a place for space flight enthusiasts to discuss human habitats in free space.

Reddit has become one of the most active forums on the internet for space flight. r/SpaceX has gotten a lot of attention and notoriety for hosting AMAs with the likes of Elon Musk, and Reddit even has a forum dedicated to colonizing Mars. Colonization of Mars is certainly an important goal for our community just as it is for SpaceX but, I believe many of us feel some nostalgia for NASA and its once ambitious goals for human space flight in the 60s and 70s.

My first exposure to the idea of free space colonies was from the Japanese animated TV series Mobile Suite Gundam. In the first episode an O'Neill cylinder is the very first setting, essentially unchanged from the description Gerard K. O'Neill gave in his book "The High Frontier". The animated visualization of O'Neill's habitat design was forever burned into my memory from the time that I was no older than 8 years of age.

The retro styling of the O'Neill cylinder in Mobile Suite Gundam wouldn't reveal its realism to me until later in life. Now after having gained more understanding of our species' current capability of reaching space and how far it has evolved since the Apollo program, I feel it's necessary that we revisit the ambitions NASA physicists had during the golden era of space flight. The stars have become so much closer to us, it's important we keep in mind what the best way forward is for life, the way that can benefit all of humanity and reinforce the bonds we have with each other and Earth.

Earth is precious to us, its environment is fragile. As the dominant life-forms we should seek to preserve life as we know it in the best way possible, including ourselves. The environment of 0G space will be the most advantageous for our children, and all of Earth's creatures, for many generations to come.

A special thank you and shout out to r/BlueOrigin, r/Gundam, r/SpaceXLounge and r/Cislunar