As people expanded their horizons and explored unknown territory they established outposts. These outposts served as bases so those moving outward could resupply and learn what current conditions were. They could learn what was happening at home and what new developments would affect them. Often the outpost became the social seed around which towns and villages grew. Without them humanity’s expansion across the Earth would have been far less sure.
The High Frontier Outpost will serve these functions and more, assisting humanity to move outward into the vastness of our own solar system and the universe beyond. While vast by current standards (the High Frontier Outpost would be measured in miles), such a structure is possible and would provide an earth-like environment for those whose dreams carry them far beyond our world.
With laboratories and factories, advanced agricultural facilities, parks, streams and forests it will provide living space for millions, a society far from our home world dedicated to our spaceward expansion. Located in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, the High Frontier Outpost will have access to the mineral riches of the asteroids without having to lift them from the bottom of a gravity well. It would provide logistical support for colonies on Mars and later the Jovian moons. It will not be isolated from Earth despite the distance. There will be communication but with a time lag.
The citizens of the Outpost will have access to all the stored knowledge of the human race. All of our science, literature, history, music and art. It will be the greatest concentration of research facilities in history. A free and open community of researchers and students in all fields with a continual interplay of creative minds that will lead to undreamed of breakthroughs.
The High Frontier Outpost will be a repository of our planet’s genetic diversity. Seeds and genomes of animals and plants, even the micro flora and fauna could be preserved as a hedge against disaster. Earth’s geological history shows us that not once, but multiple times, there have been violent extinction events that decimated the planet’s biosphere. Despite our technology we are not immune to such a fate. Humanity now has all its eggs in one basket. Let us build another.