Brian Doherty on Space Colonies and Nanotechnology
Remember the late 20th century? When machines on the moon were spitting 10-pound spoonfuls of soil into orbit every few seconds, as raw material for space colonies and zero-gravity factories? When solar panels in orbit were beaming down the planet's power supply? When we were manufacturing everything we wanted, molecule by molecule? In The Visioneers, Brian Doherty reports, the UC–Santa Barbara historian W. Patrick McCray revisits the birth and growth of those concepts of the future.