When worldbuilding any outer-space setting, from galactic-scale space opera to the earliest space colonies, one must consider demographics: the magnitude, distribution, and composition of the setting’s population. While other galaxies or far-future settings could easily have a very wide range of outcomes, a near-future in … Continue readingWorldbuilding Near-Future Space Demography
Space stations, spaceships, and starships are fundamental to space opera and many other subgenres of science fiction; vehicles and vehicular communities traveling through space feature heavily in these worlds and stories set in them, for the simple reason that any travel between points in outer … Continue readingWorldbuilding Space Megastructures: Beyond Dyson Spheres
Imaginations have long been captivated by the idea of a manned mission to Mars; colonization, in the form of permanent settlement of Mars, is the logical next step that has also held sway over the minds of men. Yet for all the attention (rightly) given … Continue readingRoad Trains of Mars
The idea of alien life or human colonies on Venus is one as old as scientific speculation and science fiction; the bright cloudy shroud over the surface made Venus for centuries much more mysterious than the other (relatively) Earth-like planet in the inner solar system, … Continue readingWorldbuilding Cloud Cities on Venus
Science fiction worldbuilding often features space colonization, but only seldomly is it considered through a demographic lens. This is likely because most science fiction writers and artists find other aspects of their worlds much more interesting to build, and basing the demographics of various places … Continue readingBig Families on the High Frontier: Worldbuilding Space Colony Demography
What will be the athletic disciplines undertaken by space colonists when they go outside their habitation modules into the hostile vacuums and atmospheres of outer space? In the previous posts in this series (part 1, part 2), we have explored the activities that may be … Continue readingSkiing and Space Diving on Other Worlds
In science-fiction settings involving near future spacefaring cultures, athletic arts and disciplines are severely underrated as a driver of space economies and as a vocation for space colonists, especially compared to the likes of asteroid mining. Some of the most spectacular opportunities space presents for … Continue readingDancing in Space: Worldbuilding More Zero-G Sports
Once space colonization begins in earnest, what will be the sports and physical hobbies taken up by the dwellers of the black skies? Here we will explore how off-world athleticism might plausibly evolve starting from its origins and extending into the foreseeable near future. Athletic … Continue readingAquamusicals in Space: Worldbuilding Zero-G Sports
In the previous post on colonizing the Oort cloud, I pointed out that with sufficiently cheap transportation technology any place within range will be inhabited to some extent by recreational-touristic populations or populations that deliberately seek out isolation. This outermost part of the solar system … Continue readingThe Sun as Gravitational Lens: A Breakthrough Technology?
Once mankind’s footprint has touched worlds across the solar system, what will be the last frontier? In the solar system of the near future, colonization will almost certainly spread outward from near-Earth space. The planets and settings closest to Earth will be settled first: Mars, … Continue readingColonizing the Oort Cloud: The Final Frontier of the Solar System