Shell Worlds: An Approach to Making Large Moons and Small Planets Habitable

The main problem with terraforming is finding planets with workable initial parameters: large enough, temperate enough, wet enough, axial spin not too fast or too slow, a magnetic field, etc. We consider a novel method of creating habitable worlds for humanity by enclosing airless and sterile planets, moons, and even large asteroids within engineered shells supported by breathable atmospheres. Beneath the shell an earthlike environment could be formed similar in almost all respects to that of Earth except for gravity, regardless of the distance to the sun or other star. These would be natural worlds, not merely large habitats, stable across historic timescales at least, each comprising a full self‐sustaining ecology, which might evolve in interesting and distinct directions over time. This approach requires no fundamental breakthroughs in science or physics but does require progress in energy production, space transportation, and environmental and materials sciences.