New publication: "How Small of a Free-Space Settlement Can People Be

The NSS Space Settlement Journal is proud to announce the publication of "How Small of a Free-Space Settlement Can People Be Happy Living In?, Al Globus and Tom Marotta. Seehttp://space.nss.org/media/NSS-JOURNAL-How-Small-a-Space-Settlement-for-Happiness.pdfAbstractWe conducted an Internet survey of 1,075 subjects to shed light on their views regarding the desirability of living in a small space settlement in orbit close to the Earth. This was motivated by studies suggesting that early space settlements can be significantly smaller than previously believed and located very close to Earth, making construction, occupation, and operation vastly easier to execute. The primary goal of the survey was to determine how small, both in land area and population, a settlement could be and still attract a sizeable number of potential settlers. Roughly 6% of all respondents said they could be happy living in a space settlement no bigger than a large cruise ship with no more than 500 people and they would be willing to devote at least 75% of their wealth to be able to live permanently in orbit. While this is a small fraction of the subjects surveyed, when expanded to all space enthusiasts world-wide it should be more than enough to populate a number of small settlements.