WELL, IT’S ABOUT TIME: In the works: An artificial-gravity space station.

Years ago, McCaleb jokingly told friends, “‘If I ever have a ton of money, I’m going to mine asteroids.” After founding three successful crytocurrency firms, McCaleb is focused on solving problems standing in the way of moving people further into the solar system.

Because the longterm health impacts of microgravity can be serious, Vast is focused on creating a large spinning structure that creates a gravity-like pull.

“Vast’s innovations will serve the role of a research platform, which is what the ISS did historically,” McCaleb said. “But we also want to be a machine shop where national and private sector astronauts can iterate and prototype things in orbit. Ultimately, our contributions will enable something akin to a way station for human habitation that orbits the moon – maybe even Mars.”

McCaleb acknowledged the inherent challenges in creating spinning structures like managing and controlling momentum. In addition, “docking to a spinning module” and communications will be complicated, he said.

All are soluble.