Colonization of trans-Neptunian objects

Freeman Dyson proposed that trans-Neptunian objects, rather than planets, are the major potential habitat of life in space.

[citation needed] Several hundred billion to trillion comet-like ice-rich bodies exist outside the orbit of Neptune, in the Kuiper belt and Inner and Outer Oort cloud.

Colonists could live in the dwarf planet's icy crust or mantle, using fusion or geothermal heat[citation needed] and mining the soft-ice or liquid inner ocean for volatiles and minerals.

Given the light gravity and resulting lower pressure in the ice mantle or inner ocean, colonizing the rocky core's outer surface might give colonists the largest number of mineral and volatile resources as well as insulating them from cold.

[citation needed] Colonists of such bodies could also build rotating habitats or live in dug-out spaces and light them with fusion reactors for thousands to millions of years before moving on.