''The Millennial Project: Colonizing the Galaxy in Eight Easy Steps'' by Marshall T. Savage is a book (published in 1992 and reprinted in 1994 with an introduction by

Arthur C. Clarke Sir Arthur Charles Clarke (16 December 191719 March 2008) was an English science fiction writer, science writer, futurist, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host. Clarke co-wrote the screenplay for the 1968 film '' 2001: A ...

) in the field of

exploratory engineering Exploratory engineering is a term coined by K. Eric Drexler to describe the process of designing and analyzing detailed hypothetical models of systems that are not feasible with current technologies or methods, but do seem to be clearly within ...

that gives a series of concrete stages the author believes will lead to interstellar colonization. Many specific scientific and engineering details are presented, as are numerous issues involved in

space colonization Space colonization (or extraterrestrial colonization) is the human settlement, settlement or colonization of outer space and astronomical bodies. The concept in its broad sense has been applied to any permanent human presence in space, such ...

The book's thesis

Savage takes a

Malthusian Malthusianism is a theory that population growth is potentially exponential, according to the Malthusian growth model, while the growth of the food supply or other resources is linear, which eventually reduces living standards to the point of trig ...

view of the

exponential growth Exponential growth occurs when a quantity grows as an exponential function of time. The quantity grows at a rate directly proportional to its present size. For example, when it is 3 times as big as it is now, it will be growing 3 times as fast ...

of human

population Population is a set of humans or other organisms in a given region or area. Governments conduct a census to quantify the resident population size within a given jurisdiction. The term is also applied to non-human animals, microorganisms, and pl ...

and life in general, and also recommends the exponential growth of

blue-green algae Cyanobacteria ( ) are a group of autotrophic gram-negative bacteria that can obtain biological energy via oxygenic photosynthesis. The name "cyanobacteria" () refers to their bluish green (cyan) color, which forms the basis of cyanobacteria' ...

for

sustenance {{wiktionary Sustenance can refer to any means of subsistence or livelihood. * food * any subsistence economy: see list of subsistence techniques ** hunting-gathering ** animal husbandry ** subsistence agriculture * Any agricultural and natural ...

. He states that it is humanity's destiny to colonize every star in the galaxy. He draws heavily on the

Fermi paradox The Fermi paradox is the discrepancy between the lack of conclusive evidence of advanced extraterrestrial life and the apparently high likelihood of its existence. Those affirming the paradox generally conclude that if the conditions required ...

(briefly stated as, "If there is intelligent life in space, why haven't we found it yet?") to support his position that it is humanity's burden alone to ignite the universe with the "spark of Life." In ''The Millennial Project'', he calls for the creation of an international foundation to realize these goals. Originally known as the ''First Millennial Foundation'' (founded by Savage in 1987), the organization changed its name to the Living Universe Foundation.

The steps of the project

The "Eight Easy Steps" proposed by Savage are as follows: # Foundationconstitute an organization convened to realize these destinies. # Aquariusbuild arcologies in the tropical

oceans The ocean is the body of salt water that covers approximately 70.8% of Earth. The ocean is conventionally divided into large bodies of water, which are also referred to as ''oceans'' (the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Antarctic/Southern, and ...

as a first step to learning how to build ("grow") colonies in space using a method not unlike that used by living

coral Corals are colonial marine invertebrates within the subphylum Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact Colony (biology), colonies of many identical individual polyp (zoology), polyps. Coral species include the important Coral ...

s developed by Prof. Wolf Hartmut Hilbertz and applying his concept of Cybertecture. They also would generate income to fund later steps. # Bifrostfirst step in actually getting off the

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...

using ground-based free-electron-laser-powered laser-propelled

Waverider A waverider is a hypersonic aircraft design that improves its supersonic lift-to-drag ratio by using the shock waves being generated by its own flight as a lifting surface, a phenomenon known as compression lift. The waverider remains a w ...

Leik Myrabo Leik Myrabo is an aerospace engineering professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute who retired from there in 2011.

, an aerospace engineering professor at

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (; RPI) is a private university, private research university in Troy, New York, United States. It is the oldest technological university in the English-speaking world and the Western Hemisphere. It was establishe ...

, demonstrated the feasibility of using ground-based lasers to propel objects into orbit in 1988. # Asgardbuild a

space station A space station (or orbital station) is a spacecraft which remains orbital spaceflight, in orbit and human spaceflight, hosts humans for extended periods of time. It therefore is an artificial satellite featuring space habitat (facility), habitat ...

geosynchronous orbit A geosynchronous orbit (sometimes abbreviated GSO) is an Earth-centered orbit with an orbital period that matches Earth's rotation on its axis, 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4 seconds (one sidereal day). The synchronization of rotation and orbital ...

. #

Avalon Avalon () is an island featured in the Arthurian legend. It first appeared in Geoffrey of Monmouth's 1136 ''Historia Regum Britanniae'' as a place of magic where King Arthur's sword Excalibur was made and later where Arthur was taken to recove ...

build colonies on the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It Orbit of the Moon, orbits around Earth at Lunar distance, an average distance of (; about 30 times Earth diameter, Earth's diameter). The Moon rotation, rotates, with a rotation period (lunar ...

by doming over the

crater A crater is a landform consisting of a hole or depression (geology), depression on a planetary surface, usually caused either by an object hitting the surface, or by geological activity on the planet. A crater has classically been described ...

s and creating miniature ecologies. #

Elysium Elysium (), otherwise known as the Elysian Fields (, ''Ēlýsion pedíon''), Elysian Plains or Elysian Realm, is a conception of the afterlife that developed over time and was maintained by some Greek religious and philosophical sects and cult ...

start

terraforming Terraforming or terraformation ("Earth-shaping") is the hypothetical process of deliberately modifying the atmosphere, temperature, surface topography or ecology of a planet, moon, or other body to be similar to the environment of Earth to mak ...

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also known as the "Red Planet", because of its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous carbon dioxide () atmosphere. At the average surface level the atmosph ...

to "create a living planet to sustain us" connected with Earth through

Buzz Aldrin Buzz Aldrin ( ; born Edwin Eugene Aldrin Jr.; January 20, 1930) is an American former astronaut, engineer and fighter pilot. He made three extravehicular activity, spacewalks as pilot of the 1966 Gemini 12 mission, and was the Lunar Module Eag ...

's proposed Mars Transit System, an example of Earth-Mars cycler. # Solariamine asteroids to create asteroid colonies and Asgard-like stations throughout the Solar System to create a Dyson cloud. # Galactiacolonize beyond the Solar System, expand throughout the

galaxy A galaxy is a Physical system, system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar medium, interstellar gas, cosmic dust, dust, and dark matter bound together by gravity. The word is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek ' (), literally 'milky', ...

heading to a level 3 on the

Kardashev scale The Kardashev scale () is a method of measuring a civilization's level of technology, technological advancement based on the amount of energy it is capable of harnessing and using. The measure was proposed by Soviet astronomer Nikolai Kardashev i ...

, a method of measuring a civilization's level of energy production and consumption. In the early stages of the Project, Savage recommends Spirulina algae as a primary foodstuff, supplemented by seafood

mariculture Mariculture, sometimes called marine farming or marine aquaculture, is a branch of aquaculture involving the cultivation of marine organisms for food and other animal products, in seawater. Subsets of it include ( offshore mariculture), fish fa ...

from the cities of the Aquarius phase. The Living Universe Foundation, previously known as the First Millennial Foundation, is an

organization An organization or organisation (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English; American and British English spelling differences#-ise, -ize (-isation, -ization), see spelling differences) is an legal entity, entity—such as ...

that supports

ocean The ocean is the body of salt water that covers approximately 70.8% of Earth. The ocean is conventionally divided into large bodies of water, which are also referred to as ''oceans'' (the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian Ocean, Indian, Southern Ocean ...

and

more or less based upon the book ''The Millennial Project''. Space Environments Ecovillage in Bastrop, Texas, is one of the few LUF projects that have materialized so far.

Criticisms

The book has drawn some criticism in that while it is replete with details concerning OTEC construction and

, it touches very little on the subject of how

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...

s and societies will need to change to enact the Project. Defenders and the author himselfSavage, Marshall T., The Millennial Project: Colonizing the Galaxy in Eight Easy Steps, 2nd edition, 1994, p 363 maintain that one man writing one book cannot be expected to write out the entire course of human development over the next millennium, and that others more suited to the field of

social psychology Social psychology is the methodical study of how thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others. Although studying many of the same substantive topics as its counterpart in the field ...

will be needed for the Project's completion.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Millennial Project, The Extraterrestrial life Fictional technology Futurology books Science books Space colonization Space colonization literature Asteroid mining

The book's thesis

The steps of the project

Criticisms

See also

References