What could cause the majority of people to live in space habitats?

So I'm thinking here about the sort of setting like Eclipse Phase, in which virtually all of humanity lives in a wide range of space habitats because of an apocalypse on Earth. I am imagining a variation of this without the apocalypse on Earth.

What could serve as a valid motivation for so many people to live in space without this apocalyptic assumption? Why might most of humanity abandon a viable Earth?

I'm assuming technology including fusion power is possible, as it would virtually be a requirement for stations like this. Eclipse Phase also uses transhumanism to justify some of its habitats but that isn't really a requirement for this, as you can just use O'Neil Cylinders instead.

My idea here is a sort of space opera setting that has a wide range of space habitats as the main setting, so that you can have a range of interesting conflicts within the solar system while also having reasonable travel times between things most of the time, with longer travel for stations orbiting different worlds.

posted almost 5 years ago

Adam Reynolds‭

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