Harry Coumnas’ Thoughts on Space Settlement

Space advocates have been researching on the possibility of space settlement for centuries. The idea of human beings living and working permanently outside of the earth is indeed fascinating, believes Harry Coumnas, the lead of a project being conducted by the International Interplanetary Society. He was in Washington DC last week to attend a press conference where he shared his thoughts on space settlement. “Millions of people could be residing in the space colonies orbiting earth in the next fifty years. The colonies in fact would be floating in space like individual galactic islands”, he said.

While space settlement might seem somewhat unappealing to some and nothing more than a fantasy to others, Harry Coumnas believes that living in space could actually be better than living on the earth. According to him, life in space would allow people to live longer and healthier. Talking about the type of materials that should be used in making these colonies, he says that particles from asteroids must be used in them instead of bricks or cement in order to make them space ready. As far as the structure of these colonies is concerned, he believes that it should be cylindrical in shape for equal distribution of the gravity.

At the end of the press conference, Harry Coumnas shared that he would like to start working on his space settlement project as soon as possible. However, before that, he would like to go on a Mars mission and explore a few other planets to figure out the safest bet for space settlers.