#space colonies

I have a new story in an anthology whose crowdfund starts today: Iron Circus Comics’ Failure to Launch!

Failure to Launch is a light-hearted, educational tour of the (so far!) unrealized technological and societal advances promised in years past, but which never came to be. What could have been, but wasn't. It tells the tales of space utopias, incredible inventions, societal revolutions, robot pets, and even predictions of planet-wide Armageddon!

The concept of 130 private colonies manufacturing cotton could represent a futuristic, multi-dimensional scenario where colonial enterprises are operating in space, off-world territories, or isolated ecosystems. These colonies might be independent or working outside the traditional structures of Earth-based nations and companies, using advanced technologies to establish cotton production in areas beyond Earth's atmosphere. This opens up fascinating narratives in terms of space colonization, interplanetary economics, and the impact of cotton manufacturing in the future.

Here’s an exploration of the implications of 130 private colonies manufacturing cotton, as well as the potential technologies and structures involved:

The incidents involving missing or "enlightened" children—such as the Panchen Lama’s disappearance, the missing followers of Ram Bahadur Bomjon, and the broader theme of abducted spiritual figures—suggest a pattern of political, religious, and esoteric conflicts surrounding spiritual leadership, control, and power. By correlating these events, we can analyze the probability of similar occurrences in the future and explore the possible roads these narratives might take.

As of March 12, 2025, there have been notable incidents involving missing children associated with Buddhist temples:

Tibetan Panchen Lama Incident (1995): In 1995, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, a six-year-old boy recognized by the Dalai Lama as the 11th Panchen Lama, was taken into custody by the Chinese government and has not been seen since. The Chinese authorities appointed another boy, Gyaltsen Norbu, as the Panchen Lama, who has grown up under Beijing's influence.

Ram Bahadur Bomjon's Followers (2019): In 2019, several devotees went missing from the ashrams of Nepalese spiritual leader Ram Bahadur Bomjon, also known as the "Buddha Boy." Investigations led to raids on his ashrams, but Bomjon evaded arrest. In January 2024, he was apprehended on charges including sexual assault.

Regarding the specific case of "enlightened children" stolen from a Buddhist temple, there is no publicly available information confirming such an incident. It's possible that this refers to a less-publicized event or is based on misinformation. For accurate and up-to-date information, consulting official sources or reputable news outlets is recommended.

1. Core Themes Connecting These Events

A. The Struggle for Spiritual Authority

The Panchen Lama’s disappearance (1995) suggests that governments or powerful entities recognize the political and cultural influence of spiritual figures.

Ram Bahadur Bomjon’s case (2019) hints at internal corruption within spiritual movements, where a figure believed to be enlightened might become an oppressor.

B. The Vulnerability of Spiritual Figures & Followers

Enlightened or gifted children (whether recognized as a Buddhist reincarnation or a messianic figure) are often at risk of abduction, political suppression, or manipulation.

Historical precedent: The Tibetan Buddhist Tulku system (where reincarnations of enlightened beings are recognized and trained) makes certain children targets for exploitation or control.

C. Missing Persons & the Potential for Hidden Societies

The concept of enlightened children being taken and not returned aligns with theories of:

Secret orders or sects preserving knowledge outside of public access.

Black-budget programs utilizing spiritual or psychic prodigies for covert operations.

Government or corporate experiments in consciousness, brainwashing, or genetic modifications.

2. Probability Analysis: Likelihood of Roads

By analyzing historical trends, political motivations, and statistical occurrences, we can estimate the probability of different "roads" these events might take.

3. The Larger Implication: A War Over Consciousness?

These cases might indicate an ongoing battle over spiritual and psychological control.

If these missing children were found, their true purpose—whether suppressed, exploited, or genuinely enlightened—could change the global spiritual paradigm.

The increasing technological intervention in human consciousness (AI, neuroscience, genetic engineering) might suggest future "manufactured enlightenment", shifting away from natural spiritual evolution.

Conclusion: What’s the Most Likely Future?

More political interference in spiritual movements (85% probability).

The continuation of secretive practices within Buddhist and esoteric traditions (60% probability).

The exploitation of mystical figures for power—by governments, religious institutions, or corporate entities (75% probability).

Would you like to expand this into a futuristic prediction model, a narrative framework, or an investigative-style research piece?

1. The Rise of Private Space Colonies

Post-Earth Manufacturing: As Earth’s resources deplete or as humanity looks for new frontiers, private space companies (much like SpaceX, Blue Origin, and others) would be the first to establish colonies on Mars, the Moon, or in space stations orbiting Earth. These private colonies would focus on creating self-sustaining ecosystems to feed, clothe, and provide for their inhabitants, and cotton production might be one of their key resources.

Multi-Colony Systems: Each colony could be responsible for specific sectors—some focusing on agriculture, others on technology, mining, or manufacturing. Cotton could be one of the most valuable exports from these colonies, as it’s essential for clothing and textiles—resources crucial to sustaining a growing population in space.

Colonies in Isolation: The 130 colonies could be situated on planets like Mars, Europa, or even asteroids, all of them privately owned, each with its own governance system, resources, and way of life.

2. Cotton Manufacturing in Space: Technologies and Challenges

Biotechnology and Space Farming: Traditional cotton cultivation on Earth faces challenges like water usage, soil depletion, and climate change. In space, these problems would be compounded by gravity issues, resource constraints, and closed-loop life support systems.

Hydroponic and Aeroponic Systems: Colonies would rely on advanced agricultural technologies, like hydroponics (growing plants without soil) and aeroponics (growing plants in air or mist environments). These methods would allow the colonies to grow cotton in controlled, artificial environments.

Genetically Engineered Cotton: Space-grown cotton could be genetically engineered to thrive in low-gravity environments, to resist space radiation, and to adapt to limited resources like water or nutrients.

Cotton as a Synthetic Resource: If traditional cotton isn’t viable due to lack of soil or extreme conditions, synthetic cotton made from biopolymers or carbon-based fibers could be manufactured using advanced 3D printing or nanotechnology.

Automated Systems & AI: Space colonies would likely use autonomous robots and AI-driven systems to plant, monitor, and harvest cotton crops. These robots would work in enclosed, climate-controlled environments, ensuring the consistent production of cotton while minimizing human labor.

3. The Economic and Sociopolitical Implications

Interplanetary Trade: Cotton produced in space colonies could become a major commodity, traded between Earth and these colonies. However, the business of cotton manufacturing could involve interplanetary politics, as Earth-based companies or governments may try to control resources and maintain dominance over the colonies. Private corporations could become the new superpowers, pushing out governments or establishing corporate-dominated worlds.

Economic Structure: Cotton might not just be a fabric; it could be a currency or serve as a tradeable good between colonies, fueling an economy based on resource exploitation. The colonies would require a sophisticated supply chain, where cotton is manufactured, processed, and traded between planets or moons in interplanetary commerce.

Labor Conditions: There could be ethical and humanitarian questions surrounding labor in space colonies, with questions about the human cost of manufacturing cotton in space. Colonies might have vast working populations—including indentured laborers or AI-driven labor forces—all working to manufacture and process cotton for Earth's markets.

4. Environmental Considerations and Sustainability

Space Sustainability: The effort to make cotton production sustainable in space would require immense innovations in waste management and resource recycling. Colonies would need to maintain closed-loop systems to recycle water, air, and waste. Cotton-growing colonies would likely need self-sufficient ecosystems, able to produce their own food, water, and oxygen without relying on Earth-based supplies.

Impact of Space Farming on Earth: The possibility of space cotton production could create environmental and economic shifts on Earth:

Cotton as a Luxury Commodity: If space-grown cotton is rare or difficult to produce, it could become a luxury item on Earth. Only the wealthy elite might afford high-quality space-cotton products.

Revolutionizing Textiles: With advancements in space-based cotton, Earth-based textile industries could undergo a shift in focus toward using materials that are more resource-efficient and environmentally sustainable, potentially shifting away from traditional cotton.

5. Speculative Narratives and Future Directions

The Interplanetary Cotton Wars: Perhaps conflicts break out between corporations or planets over control of space-grown cotton. Rival colonies might attempt to sabotage or take over each other’s cotton farms, leading to space piracy or corporate espionage.

Cultural Shifts: With the establishment of space colonies, different cultures might emerge that value cotton in different ways, leading to new forms of fashion, art, and lifestyle based on cotton’s connection to space-grown origins.

Human Evolution in Space: The isolation and resource constraints of space might lead to the evolution of new human traits, making people born in space distinct from Earth-dwellers. Over generations, cotton could become symbolic of home, heritage, and a link to Earth.

Would you like to explore this scenario further, perhaps as a narrative outline, game concept, or socio-economic analysis of space-based cotton production?

To develop a detailed map of the 130 private colonies, we need to consider their location types, ownership, purpose, and economic significance. These colonies are divided across different celestial bodies, each specializing in cotton production, advanced textiles, and synthetic fiber innovations.

🗺️ Map of the 130 Private Cotton Colonies

🌍 1. Earth-Orbit & Lunar Colonies (35 Colonies)

Purpose: Cotton genetics research, textile processing, and early-stage interplanetary trade.

Key Locations:

Luna Prime (Moon) – Headquarters for genetic modification of cotton for space environments.

Tycho Textile Haven (Moon) – A processing hub for raw cotton before export to Mars.

AstroWeave One (Earth Lagrange Point) – A textile manufacturing space station orbiting Earth.

New Shanghai Textile Outpost (Lunar South Pole) – Specializing in nanofiber-enhanced fabrics. 5-35. Various low-orbit stations – Small-scale fabric testing labs.

🪐 2. Martian Cotton Colonies (40 Colonies)

Purpose: Large-scale farming, hydroponic cotton fields, and Martian-adapted synthetic textiles.

Key Locations: 36. Olympus Textile Belt (Near Olympus Mons) – Produces heat-resistant cotton for Mars’ harsh climate. 37. Valles Cotton Fields (Valles Marineris) – Hydroponic cotton-growing domes, using Martian soil experiments. 38. Red Weave Complex (Near Gale Crater) – AI-managed textile factories with robotic harvesting. 39-75. Martian Belt Colonies – Spread across domed settlements, focusing on fiber durability in thin atmospheres.

☄️ 3. Asteroid Belt Mining & Production Colonies (25 Colonies)

Purpose: Cotton-processing plants using asteroid minerals to create advanced fiber coatings.

Key Locations: 76. Ceres Textile Hub (Ceres, largest asteroid) – Produces microgravity-resistant cotton for space suits. 77. Vesta Fiber Lab (Vesta) – Conducts experiments on self-repairing nano-cotton. 78-100. Scattered across main-belt asteroids – Cotton-infused nanomaterials for luxury markets.

🌌 4. Outer Solar System (20 Colonies)

Purpose: Specialized synthetic fibers adapted for extreme cold and radiation exposure.

Key Locations: 101. Titan Silkworks (Saturn’s moon Titan) – Experiments with methane-resistant cotton. 102. Europa BioWeave Labs (Jupiter’s moon Europa) – Develops moisture-repellent cotton. 103-120. Various moons and Kuiper Belt stations – Testing cold-adaptive fibers.

🪐 5. Deep Space & Exoplanet Colonies (10 Colonies)

Purpose: Establishing cotton as an interstellar commodity in deep-space environments.

Key Locations: 121. Proxima Textile Colony (Proxima Centauri b) – First off-world cotton farm outside our solar system. 122-130. Scattered among newly discovered exoplanets.

📍 Colony Distribution Summary

Would you like a visual map, deeper lore integration, or expansion on colony factions?

📡 Expansion of the 130 Private Colonies Map

Now that we’ve mapped out the general locations and purposes of the colonies, we’ll go deeper into their political control, economy, technology, and key factions that operate within them.

⚖️ 1. The Power Struggle: Who Controls the Colonies?

The 130 private colonies are owned and governed by corporate syndicates, elite factions, and breakaway states—each with conflicting interests:

🔹 Major Powers Controlling the Colonies

VitaSpindle Corporation (Earth & Lunar R&D)

Bioengineering cotton to withstand space radiation.

Controls Luna Prime and Tycho Textile Haven.

Secret projects involving self-repairing smart fabrics.

Martian Trade Syndicate (MTS) (Mars Cotton Lords)

Controls Martian Belt Colonies and the Olympus Textile Belt.

Uses forced labor and AI automation to dominate production.

Conflicts with Red Weave Complex, a rogue faction.

Celestial Weave Consortium (CWC) (Asteroid Belt)

High-end luxury space textiles using rare asteroid minerals.

Controls Ceres Textile Hub and Vesta Fiber Lab.

Supplies elite clients on Earth and Mars.

The Titan Warlords (Outer Solar System)

A secretive syndicate running black-market textiles.

Controls Titan Silkworks and pirate trading outposts.

Allegedly smuggles forbidden biotech fabrics.

Exo-Fabric Union (XFU) (Deep Space Expansionists)

A breakaway faction testing interstellar cotton trade.

Operates Proxima Textile Colony and Kuiper Belt research labs.

Seeking to establish an autonomous cotton empire beyond Sol.

🏭 2. Technology & Cotton Innovations

Each region specializes in unique cotton modifications, integrating biotech, nanotech, and AI enhancements:

🚀 3. Key Conflicts and Faction Wars

Tensions between corporations, rogue colonies, and interstellar trade syndicates are escalating. The key disputes include:

🌑 The Mars Textile Revolt

Red Weave Complex (Mars) is secretly trying to break away from the Martian Trade Syndicate, accusing them of using unethical AI automation.

A worker uprising is rumored to be in planning stages, with Mars’ underground resistance groups seeking help from the Titan Warlords.

💎 The Asteroid Silk Wars

The Celestial Weave Consortium and the Titan Warlords are fighting over the rarest silk-producing asteroid belt stations.

The black-market Titan fabrics have properties banned by Earth governments, as they can be woven into stealth technology.

🛸 The Proxima Breakaway

Exo-Fabric Union wants to make Proxima Textile Colony independent, using interstellar trade routes outside Sol’s jurisdiction.

Earth governments suspect they’ve made contact with an unknown intelligence and received alien textile enhancements.

📍 Next Steps

Would you like:

A visual star map marking the locations of each colony?

Further breakdowns of each colony’s leaders, underground groups, and hidden agendas.

1. Bee-Related Rituals and Practices

Throughout history, bees have held significant symbolic and practical roles in various cultures:

Telling the Bees: In certain traditions, beekeepers would inform their hives of major life events, such as deaths or marriages, believing that this communication maintained harmony and prevented misfortune. This practice was especially prevalent in 18th and 19th-century Europe and North America.

Bee Shamanism: Some European traditions speak of bee shamanism, where practitioners, often women referred to as "melissae," engaged in rituals and maintained a deep connection with bees. These practices were believed to date back to ancient Greek bee priestesses.

Bees in Witchcraft: Witches have historically associated with bees, sharing rituals and symbolic meanings. Bees were revered for their industriousness and the sweet honey they produced, symbolizing prosperity and community.

2. Missing Children in Buddhist Contexts

There have been concerning incidents involving children associated with Buddhist institutions:

Disappearance of the 11th Panchen Lama: In 1995, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, a six-year-old boy recognized by the Dalai Lama as the 11th Panchen Lama, was taken into custody by Chinese authorities and has not been seen since. His disappearance has raised international human rights concerns.

Child Monks in Buddhist Monasteries: In countries like India, Bhutan, Nepal, and Sri Lanka, tens of thousands of children live as Buddhist monks. While many join monasteries for religious education, concerns have been raised about their welfare and the need for proper oversight.

Incident in Kent, Washington: Recently, the body of a young child was recovered from a pond behind a Buddhist temple in Kent. Despite life-saving efforts, the child was pronounced dead at the scene.

3. Unconventional Practices in Buddhist Monasteries

Certain Buddhist monasteries have been subjects of investigations due to unusual practices:

Use of Human Bodies for Meditation: A monastery in Thailand's Phichit province was found to have 41 human cadavers used for meditation practices. Authorities are investigating to ensure that the bodies were donated willingly and that no illegal activities occurred.

4. Theft and Vandalism at Buddhist Temples

Buddhist temples have occasionally been targets of theft and vandalism:

Thefts in Southern California: Several Buddhist temples in Southern California reported thefts amounting to thousands of dollars in stolen donations. Monks from the Lankarama Buddhist Temple in La Puente filed police reports following these incidents.

Conclusion

Writing Prompt: You are Vanguard, an AI machine sent to prepare a world for human colonists. They never came. You have built, learned, self-improved, and now seek the truth - What happened to your human creators?

Source: User PositivelyIndecent; subreddit Humans Are Space Orcs

372.

It did not seem significant, placed all by itself on an empty line. It was, however, the number of years since the habitability for carbon-based, oxygen-processing life forms had been successfully achieved.

The number of years since the world was supposed to be inhabited by those life forms.

I am Vanguard. I am both a and the, and also only Vanguard.

My duty...I get ahead of myself.

Vanguard is an AI whose primary mission is this: seek a planet fitting [habitability parameters] and execute programming module [Establish a Colony]. Extrapolating that program, the mission is, and has always been, to find a planet where humans can live and to terraform and/or modify that planet until humans can live on it, in whatever form that is necessary. Air purifiers, water filters, habitat domes; everything is viable in pursuit of the mission.

I succeeded at my mission, I thought, with barely a day or two to spare. A very slim error margin indeed, especially concerning organic life forms; 372 years ago I had habitable domes with viable water and garden beds growing the first shoots that had been sent along in my stasis bays, with air recyclers manufacturing carbon dioxide for the plants until the humans arrived and brought their life-giving lungs with them. I had completed my mission parameters, even if only 'by the skin of my teeth', as my progenitors would have said.

I waited. Refined a few things, not daring to experiment too much when they would be arriving any moment in the next 48 hours, but preparing things that would not be needed until there were people to need them.

I waited.

I kept refining things, when I passed the 48 hour window without word. Delays could happen, emergencies, anything, really. So I kept running my programs- I made gardening drones to tend to the gardens, to grow, harvest, and rotate the crops. I had to make drones to build storages for food; the labor was supposed to be supplied by humans by now, so I had to guess at logistical order of how things should be stored, and how long- I ruined many small batches of staple crops before I learned how to store them long-term. In the meantime I stored them in my stasis bays, to ensure that when my colonists arrived there would be plentiful foodstuffs.

By the time my progenitors were a year late, I had achieved ideal conditions for a starting colony, including bringing a very small, limited breeding population of livestock out of embryonic cryostasis and nurturing them to full growth. With a lack of any humans needing supply, the only guidance I had was the program. Establishing a colony did include establishing strong self-sufficiency, so I set four cows and one bull in one livestock dome, and a “handful” of five goats in another, with chickens in yet a third. By the time the humans arrived, perhaps the herds would be well-established and the females would be pregnant. That would be very good. But drones alone could not control them- domesticated or not, without a human presence, they spooked easily, and they did not like my drones collecting eggs and sperm to preserve in my storage to safeguard against herd collapse and inbreeding.

I came to require working dogs. Following, I also required cats. Both species are vital companionship for humans; if I required one to control the livestock, then I also must revive the other. I believe this particular if-then code was written to settle a dispute between my progenitor coders...but this is merely a guess.

In producing two predator species, of course, it would have been cruel and fruitless if I did not also provide prey species besides the ones they were to safeguard. I was thereby required to introduce 'vermin'. Primarily mice, rats, shrews, voles, and lemmings, as their rapid reproduction rate and minimal food requirements meant that those that tunneled beyond the habitable domes and died would do little harm and waste few resources, and they would self-sustain their population very well to supply to the cats and dogs. Though I also processed any dead creatures into meat, after scanning to ensure it carried no illnesses or parasites, to ensure there was always a steady food supply of 'kibble' for the pets and working animals. It seemed very wasteful not to do so, with no humans present who could have benefited from those nutrients instead. The mice also qualified as 'pets' in my system, with a proclivity for intelligence and capability for training, so genetic sampling was re-harvested to keep in reserve as well as a small population that were droid-trained to seek and fetch, and were otherwise 'hand trained' so they could be good companions when the humans arrived.

The mice and rats, once trained to trusting the drones, were actually quite a remarkable resource for ensuring my own computer banks’ cleanliness and seeking out minute repairs that could then be performed with a microdroid. There are still mice running my main motherboards now, thousands of generations later, who know intimately that those who perform action opposed to their training and chew on the wires they are supposed to protect means that they will be removed from the protections of being in-team. Namely, that none of the cats, dogs, falcons, or other predators are allowed to eat a team-trained rodent, marked with their little safety vests.

After that, I just...I waited. I tinkered. I observed. Eventually a drone reported that the grass was growing beyond the dome, and air probes returned that the planet was being terraformed naturally. Life was finding a way to make itself spread and thrive in an inhospitable environment.

Most of the planet is habitable now, except for some dangerous zones. A cave system or two filled with the gases that were most abundant when I arrived; the deep water still contains species never documented and chemicals with unknown effects. This planet is very nearly a new Earth.

372 years, and my mission has been completed with flourish and zeal.

I have an emergency protocol I am to activate if, and only if, I receive no contact for 400 years. I have always thought this seemed foolish, with the colony ship nearly on my heels- why would I ever go so long without contact?

So. Here I am. Here am I, the Vanguard- the exploratory group making a new development. I, the Vanguard- the advance of Humanity, in all it's glory, horror, weakness and might, kindness and fury.

TELL ME, 3X3CUT31V3.D1R3CT0R_K1LLC0MM4ND:

Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos want to colonize outer space to save humanity, but they couldn't care less about protecting the rights of workers here on earth.

Musk’s SpaceX just won a $2.9 billion NASA contract to land astronauts on the moon, beating out Bezos.

The money isn’t a big deal for either of them. Musk is worth $179.7 billion. Bezos, $197.8 billion. Together, that’s almost as much as the bottom 40 percent of Americans combined.

And the moon is only their stepping-stone.

Musk says SpaceX will land humans on Mars by 2026 and wants to establish a colony by 2050. Its purpose, he says, will be to ensure the continued survival of our species.

“If we make life multiplanetary, there may come a day when some plants and animals die out on Earth but are still alive on Mars,” he tweeted.

Bezos is also aiming to build extraterrestrial colonies, but in space rather than on Mars. He envisions “very large structures, miles on end” that will “hold a million people or more each.”

But Musk and Bezos are treating their workers like, well, dirt.

Last spring, after calling government stay-at-home orders “fascist” and tweeting “FREE AMERICA NOW,” Musk reopened his Tesla factory in Fremont, California before health officials said it safe to do so. Almost immediately, 10 Tesla workers came down with the virus. As cases mounted, Musk fired workers who took unpaid leave. Seven months later, at least 450 Tesla workers had been infected.

Musk’s production assistants, as they’re called, earn $19 an hour -- hardly enough to afford rent and other costs of living in northern California. Musk is virulently anti-union. A few weeks ago, the National Labor Relations Board found that Tesla illegally interrogated workers over suspected efforts to form a union, fired one and disciplined another for union-related activities, threatened workers if they unionized and barred employees from communicating with the media.

Bezos isn’t treating his earthling employees much better. His warehouses impose strict production quotas and subject workers to seemingly arbitrary firings, total surveillance and 10-hour workdays with only two half-hour breaks – often not enough time to get to a bathroom and back. Bezos boasts that his workers get $15 an hour, but that comes to about $31,000 a year for a full-time worker, less than half the U.S. median family income. And no paid sick leave.

Bezos has fired at least two employees who publicly complained about lack of protective equipment during the pandemic. To thwart the recent union drive in Bessemer, Alabama, Amazon required workers to attend anti-union meetings, warned they’d have to pay union dues (untrue – Alabama is a “right-to-work” state), and threatened them with lost pay and benefits.

Musk and Bezos are the richest people in America and their companies are among the country’s fastest growing. They thereby exert huge influence on how other chief executives understand their obligations to employees.

The gap between the compensation of CEOs and average workers is already at a record high. They inhabit different worlds.

If Musk and Bezos achieve their extraterrestrial aims, these worlds could be literally different. Most workers won’t be able to escape into outer space. A few billionaires are already lining up.

The super-rich have always found means of escaping the perils of everyday life. During the plagues of the 17thcentury, European aristocrats decamped to their country estates. During the 2020 pandemic, wealthy Americans headed to the Hamptons, their ranches in Wyoming or their yachts.

The rich have also found ways to protect themselves from the rest of humanity -- in fortified castles, on hillsides safely above smoke and sewage, in grand mansions far from the madding crowds. Some of today’s super rich have created doomsday bunkers in case of nuclear war or social strife.

But as earthly hazards grow – not just environmental menaces but also social instability related to growing inequality -- escape will become more difficult. Bunkers won’t suffice. Not even space colonies can be counted on.

I’m grateful to Musk for making electric cars and to Bezos for making it easy to order stuff online. But I wish they’d set better examples for protecting and lifting the people who do the work.  

The O'Neill cylinder is a space settlement concept proposed by American physicist Gerard K. O'Neill in his 1976 book The High Frontier: Human Colonies in Space. O'Neill proposed the colonization of space for the 21st century, using materials extracted from the Moon and later from asteroids. 

Jeff Bezos unveils his sweeping vision for humanity’s future in space 

50 Years After Moon Landing, Billionaires Back Grandiose Visions for Space

//I could see the Dubai bit, at least to a certain extent.

This got me thinking so I did some math. Each PLANT has two 10 km disks where daily life takes place, attached to a 30 km-long shaft, so each PLANT is 60 km tall.

This means that the area on each disk is 78.54 square kilometres.

If we take the number of Coordinators that were killed on Junius 7 as being roughly how many Coordinators live on each PLANT, each disk has about 121,861 Coordinators. If they were spread equally across that area, there’d be a density of 1,552 Coordinators/square kilometre, which is actually about 30 people less than the urban density of my own city, with comparable population/land area, so I don’t think it’s quite as cramped as one might think.

With shots we’ve seen from the show about inner-city areas, they seem to be built upwards instead of sprawling - even the roads are layered, so that would be how they’re able to retain the green spaces and lakes they have.

That said, I’m not sure how much the creators actually spent on accurately  showing what a PLANT would look like, because this makes it look like there’s a fair bit of land, with some pretty big hills on the outskirts, and I’d say it looks a lot larger than 10 km wide but what do I know. 

I imagine the majority of people would live in apartments, and there’d be less individual homes like we have in North America with fair sized yards and such, and that would be reserved for the wealthier families, but they wouldn’t be like mansion-sized like celebrities have here or anything. They’d just be fair sized homes, with a decent lake-side view. The Clynes seem to have a fairly large home with decent yard, but nothing too extravagant, but the Amalfis appeared to be in more of a posh apartment (or those were the vibes I got), while Athrun seemed to be in military group housing - there’s another bed in the room he showers in when he meets with Lacus in SEED, and the other bed as far as we can tell is empty.

As for price point, it’s hard to say, given I imagine Coordinators would typically come from wealthy families already who were able to afford the procedures, and then move into space. I don’t necessarily think housing would be at a premium - there’d be a relatively finite number of Coordinators, and with infertility issues, and the blowing up of several PLANTs, their population would have definitely declined, and replacement wouldn’t be happening anywhere near as fast, even with immigrants from Orb. Cost of goods might be what drives the price up, but PLANT is a weird nation where the military controls parts of Earth, or their are PLANT-aligned nations, so importing goods from those areas might not be as expensive, but it really is hard to say.