An Event of Possible Interest to UK Spacesettlers

On Aug 11, 2012, at 7:23 AM, Andy Nimmo wrote:

> Yes, Mike and Al are quite correct. It would indeed be much cheaper
> to build an O'Neill habitat, even the Island Three version, than to
> settle either the Moon or Mars, and this is very much what we would
> all very much like. The problem is that we don't have the money to
> do it, and those who do are much more likely to go for the other
> options so long as money is generally scarce on planet Earth. Their
> motives differ from ours.
>
The key to free-space settlements is, in my opinion, doing relatively
near-term things that are valuable in and of them selves that, at the
same time, develop the technology and infrastructure for space
settlement. In my view there are three such:

-- Space tourism
-- Space solar power
-- Planetary defense and asteroid mining

For details, see http://alglobus.net/NASAwork/papers/PathsToSpaceSettlement2011.pdf