How to Build Manhattan in Space
The real problem with space is there’s not enough of it—at least not when it comes to places to put people. With billionaires funding their own space programs and investors pouring cash into new start-ups aimed at building a true space economy, millions of humans may end up working and living away from Earth in a century or two. If that happens, all of those people will need somewhere to live. But as of yet, no would-be captain of space industry has proposed a viable housing plan.
Mars, which gets a lot of attention as ground zero for humanity’s future, is really just a good place to die. The Red Planet is a frozen desert with a thin atmosphere and no protecting magnetic field. The threat from high-energy solar radiation is so extreme that cities would have to be built underground or covered by thick domes. And the surface of Mars (or any planet
