So, on its final voyage out, it’s a fitting consolation
That the Jovian moon, Io, be its final destination
To haul up stores will take about a dozen flights or more
Plus ten passenger shuttles, brings our crew to eighty score
We’ll rendezvous in geo-synch and board the mighty ship
Then stow our gear and settle in for the thirteen month long trip
Like lifeboats, smaller shuttlecraft are neatly stowed away
We’ll set up runs down to the base and back, three times a day
Once in Io’s orbit, the O’Neill will serve quite well
As construction shack, greenhouse, smelting plant, and hotel
Solar power satellites will spring from Io’s sand
As corn and soybeans will rise up from the reclaimed land
Then after solar satellites our colonies, we’ll build
In orbit around Io until the orbit’s filled
Then, after all is said and done the O’Neill will have its place
As the one and only orbital museum that’s in space
And on that far off day you and I may look with pride
Upon the Gerard K. O’Neill that once gave us a ride
To settle there, on Io and give birth to a new race
The Io-ens, our children, another life in space
While studying at the University of Michigan, Brandon became fascinated with the concept of Space Solar Power Satellites (SSPS). He read about a plan to build a base on the moon in order to strip-mine the surface for ore to be used in space. The plan called for a crew of 100 to 200 people residing on the moon, plus an undetermined number living in orbit at the ore processing construction shack.
Their job would be to process the raw ore and turn it into solar power satellites as well as a huge orbital habitat, a design variety known as a Stanford Torus. This latter item is a bicycle-inner-tube shaped habitat, one mile across, with a tube diameter of about 400 feet. The habitat was designed to house 10,000 people, living and working in space while building and maintaining solar power satellites and additional habitats.