A simple question

On Jan 25, 2012, at 8:57 AM, sraj wrote:

> Our aim should be to become truly space faring by being able to
> 'live out
> there' with minimum support. The sooner we do it, the more
> confidence we
> will have that it can be done.
>
> So, lets continue our investigation, for the conditions earlier
> stated:
>
> S.No......... Place ............................Cost
>
> 1............Around Earth ........ A few trillion $ (say 3 trillion
> $)

The price tag depends on when you start. If you start trying to build
one today, maybe something like this. If you develop space tourism,
space solar power, and asteroid detection and deflection first, then
start, the price tag is much low. That's the idea behind http://alglobus.net/NASAwork/papers/PathsToSpaceSettlement2011.pdf

>
> 2..........In orbit around the Moon ..... 0.5 trillion $

Why do you think building something around the moon is cheaper than on
Earth? Presumably you are developing mines on the moon first.

There is a pretty good paper on this idea wrt SSP. It compares
developing SSP directly from Earth or by developing lunar mines
first. The second option costs more but breads even sooner. See http://www.nss.org/settlement/journal/NSSJOURNAL_AnalysisOfONeill-GlaserModel_2011.pdf