You must be thinking, The High Frontier is not a novel. Neither is it a TV show or a film, although the manuscript inspired an enlightening documentary about the life work of Gerard K. O'Neill (this book's author) in 2021. At any rate, we feel this book deserves a place in our blog since it remains one of our favourite pieces about space developments.
O'Neill published this book in 1976 when people were overflowing with 'space optimism' feelings following NASA's milestones. We, however, got our hands on this book much later but still felt that the scheme outlined in the book was the right approach the space program should take.
As O'Neill pointed out in 1976, within the past decades, — that held back in the 1970s and our present days — "Four problems have been recognized. All of which relate to the limited size of Earth." Does this ring a bell: energy, food and potable water, biodiversity, and population? And matters have only gone south since the 1970s. O'Neill's solution still stands: Human colonies in space are not a luxury but a necessity.
It has been said that humankind broke its umbilical cord with planet Earth when we set foot on the Moon. We have also heard that Earth is the cradle of humanity. However, this planet is not going on nursing us forever. And we have O'Neill's words to remind us, "These are the most dangerous decades in all of human history. We have the capability to destroy ourselves, and yet, we have not quite broken free of the limitations of that thin biosphere of the Earth. Life is extraordinarily rare, extraordinarily precious. Opening the high frontier means making possible and ensuring the survival of the human race."
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