Hours after Apollo 11 landed safely on the moon, a jubilant Robert A. Heinlein predicted that before the twentieth century was over there would be retirement communities on the moon, the aged benefiting from the low-gravity environment. NASA contractor Dr. Al Globus feels similarly, though his timeframe for settlements in space is sometime in the next century. From Jonathan O’Callaghan in the Daily Mail:

Dr Globus is a contract scientist at Nasa Ames research centre and over the years has worked on the Hubble Space Telescope, the ISS, the Space Shuttle and much more.

But a few decades ago his interest was piqued by the possibility of space settlements, leading to him setting up Nasa’s annual Space Settlement Contest, which challenges students to come up with designs for space colonies.

Now he’s a major proponent for living in space, and believes that it won’t be long before people are visiting cities in Earth orbit as readily as they travel from London to New York.

‘Whether [space settlements] will happen or not is really hard to say. Whether it can happen, absolutely,’ Dr Globus tells MailOnline.

‘If we as a people decide to do it, we can do it. We have the scientific capability, financial capability, there is simply no question we can do it.

‘If no major disaster strikes in the next few centuries, I would be astounded if we didn’t do it.’

He explains how our technological know-how it only going to increase barring an enormous catastrophe like a nuclear war.

‘We could have the first space settlement in decades, certainly less than a century.’

Dr Globus is a proponent of orbiting colonies, while he adds that others like SpaceX CEO Elon Musk are envisaging a future where humans live on Mars.

As to the actual purpose of a space settlement Dr Globus says it could be just like a town or city on Earth while also providing a way for humans to expand and survive off Earth.

It would be ‘a place to live, raise your kids, where your friends and family have Thanksgiving dinner and celebrate Christmas, and visit Earth on vacation,’ explains Dr Globus.

‘It’s the same purpose as any town or settlement or city has.

‘The way species get endangered and wiped out is by being dependent on a limited environment.

‘Humanity started in East Africa and now live on literally every continent – even Antarctica – albeit for a small time.

‘We live in snow, jungle, deserts, savannahas, forests; we have spread out about as far as we can spread out, and the next step is to move to space.’•