habitat vs. colony vs. settlement

I had settled on "space settlement" by the time I created my website.

Regards,
Mike Combs

From: spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com [mailto:spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com]
Sent: Wednesday, June 04, 2014 12:19 PM
To: spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [spacesettlers] habitat vs. colony vs. settlement

I've been using these terms a lot lately, for obvious reasons (see
http://highfrontier.com/). And I keep waffling on which one to use:

- space colony
- space habitat
- space settlement

Wearing my logical hat, I tend to favor "habitat" as it remains accurate
long after these are no longer part of the frontier. But somehow it
doesn't seem to have the right ring to it, especially when I speak to
people not already in the space settlement community. To them, the
meaning of "space habitat" is not obvious -- I think it evokes
"Habitrail," which is a pretty fair description of the current state of
offworld living.

So that leaves "colony" and "settlement." Both evoke frontierism a bit.
The former also evokes colonialism, which isn't a positive thing to
many people (although the *reason* it's not a positive thing is the
displacement of native people, which doesn't apply in space). Colony
also raises the question, "colony of what country?" That's an issue I'm
planning to ignore entirely, instead imagining that colonies are built
by corporations and then self-governed by the residents.

That leaves "settlement" as the most logical choice... though I'm not
sure that has the best ring either.

So I'm looking for more input. In the context of presenting the idea to
people who have maybe never heard of it before, what's the best term to
(1) quickly give them the right idea, and (2) give them a positive
feeling about it?

Thanks,
- Joe

I had settled on "space settlement" by the time I created my website.

Regards,
Mike Combs

From:
spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com [mailto:spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com]
Sent:
Wednesday, June 04, 2014 12:19 PM
To:
spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com
Subject:
[spacesettlers] habitat vs. colony vs. settlement

I've been using these terms a lot lately, for obvious reasons (see
http://highfrontier.com/). And I keep waffling on which one to use:
- space colony
- space habitat
- space settlement
Wearing my logical hat, I tend to favor "habitat" as it remains accurate
long after these are no longer part of the frontier. But somehow it
doesn't seem to have the right ring to it, especially when I speak to
people not already in the space settlement community. To them, the
meaning of "space habitat" is not obvious -- I think it evokes
"Habitrail," which is a pretty fair description of the current state of
offworld living.
So that leaves "colony" and "settlement." Both evoke frontierism a bit.
The former also evokes colonialism, which isn't a positive thing to
many people (although the *reason* it's not a positive thing is the
displacement of native people, which doesn't apply in space). Colony
also raises the question, "colony of what country?" That's an issue I'm
planning to ignore entirely, instead imagining that colonies are built
by corporations and then self-governed by the residents.
That leaves "settlement" as the most logical choice... though I'm not
sure that has the best ring either.
So I'm looking for more input. In the context of presenting the idea to
people who have maybe never heard of it before, what's the best term to
(1) quickly give them the right idea, and (2) give them a positive
feeling about it?
Thanks,
- Joe