I’ve long argued that large self-contained in-space colonies, like that popularized by the late Gerard K. O’Neill, offer marvelous settings on which to base science fiction stories. (See my essay in the Solar Sci-Fi section.) New cultures would arise and multiply within such island worlds and offer scenarios for stories just as rich and diverse as any of those based on the intra-galactic motif – yet the action would be within our solar system and obey known physics, e.g. no need for faster-than-light travel. If we get off our collective duff, such stories could even play out in reality in the next few decades.

It’s thus rather disappointing that the first movie to bring a lot of public attention to such a colony portrays it as nothing more than the ultimate gated community for the ultra-rich. Haven’t seen Elysium yet, but from all accounts it takes the sophomoric and narrow-minded “space travel is for the rich today and so always will be” theme and runs it into the ground – from orbit. Innumerable technologies and activities that were once only for the rich  (e.g. air travel, Caribbean cruises, spas and resorts, computers, big flat screen TVs, etc) eventually became broadly available and affordable for the middle class. The same will happen with space travel and space habitats.

I hope more enlightened writers and moviemakers will ignore the misleading negativity of this film and instead be inspired by the in-space colony concept and begin to fulfill its vast story-making potential. Lessons from ‘Elysium’: Go Back to Huge Space Colonies’ Idealistic Roots – Space.co

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The National Space Society is dedicated to the promotion of human settlement of the solar system. Here is a statement from the group about Elysium:

Space Settlements Represent Hope for Humankind

The National Space Society (NSS) offers a comparison of its vision for space settlement to that promoted by many dystopian science fiction movies of today.  NSS has supported the concept of rotating space settlements in orbit or deep space since the epochal publication by Dr. Gerard K. O’Neill of his seminal article on space colonies in Physics Today (1974).

Since those days, concepts of democracy and egalitarian societies have been integral to our vision. A goal of NSS is the creation of a free, spacefaring civilization with people living and working in space. We believe in democracy to build and operate space settlements, whether in space, on the Moon, on Mars, or even on planets around other stars.

A large part of the space movement today is founded on improving life on Earth by creating an ability to operate in space. This includes the ability to divert threatening asteroids, detect solar outbursts that could destroy our electrical grid, and build solar power collection/transmission satellites that could produce huge amounts of carbon free energy in space for use on Earth, enriching all of humankind. In fact, an early justification for building space settlements was to house the labor force needed to build the solar power satellites that would provide a global solar power source to all nations, helping to prevent the ecological and economic collapse and chaos depicted in many dystopian movies of today. NSS believes that we are making the future every day and that we want to build a hopeful future.

NSS is happy that space settlements are beginning to appear in popular culture such as the recent motion picture Elysium.  NSS applauds the cinematic skill that resulted in the depiction of the physical appearance and operation of a rotating orbital space settlement. While NSS accepts that a conflict is fairly fundamental to a good story, we would like movie viewers to keep in mind that the tyrannical government depicted in the movie does not represent the path of humans in space envisioned by the NSS and its thousands of members.

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Find lots of links to web resources about space settlement in the HobbySpace Life in Space section.

Update: Here is another view of the movie and space colonies: Space Settlements – Music of the Spheres.