Mass of an Example Design

One approach would be to set the design goal of a station radius such that the stressed skin structure would have a surface density of 5,000 kg/m², which is a mass required in any case to provide shielding against radiation from space[12].

The mass of an O'Neill style colony can be first approximated as the sum of mass of the structure, the mass of the furnishings, and the mass of the atmosphere. For the design sketched here, these sum to 1.6 x 10¹⁷ kg., or 1.6 x 10⁶ kg per person.