“No one will be more surprised than I if, when Island One is completed, it looks very much like the sketches we now make of it. Even its size and its population may well be quite different. If we go by the almost universal human experience of large-scale construction projects, it will probably end up to be smaller, and will cost more, than our first estimates indicate. Knowing that from the start, we should take care to develop the design of Island One in such a way that it can be reduced in dimensions, or as engineers say, “de-scoped” as the design progresses.”

– Gerard K. O’Neill