(1927-1992) US physicist, at Princeton University from 1954 until his death, whose popular-science book The High Frontier: Human Colonies in Space (1977) argues strongly for the construction of Space Habitats, either in Earth orbit or at one of the stable Lagrange Points of our Earth/Moon system – especially L5. His arguments aroused great interest among would-be space colonists, and were influential in shaping sf views of space exploration in the Near Future. [DRL]

Gerard K O'Neill

born New York: 6 February 1927

died Hancock, Maine: 27 April 1992

works (selected)

• The High Frontier: Human Colonies in Space (New York: William Morrow, 1977) [nonfiction: hb/]
• 2081: A Hopeful View of the Human Future (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1981) [nonfiction: hb/]

links

Previous versions of this entry

• 01/01/2005
• 28/11/2011
• 20/12/2011
• 21/08/2012