Oops, thinking way to far ahead.

A few emails ago I talked about how a space habitat
would have to be done first. I was thinking in terms
of: If Island One is built fifty years from now, and
we reach a brand new, undiscovered realm of space
travel 300 years from now, then Island One is almost
'the first step'. I am completely aware of how
incridibly inplausible it would be to launch Island
One from Earth (or any sufficient habitat).

This brings up an interesting political concept. If
the promise was space settlement (island 3's) then
Island one could be turned out to the public as a
'stepping stone' and therefore it would not seem as
big a deal, possibly gaining more support from
non-trekkies (and of course other, intellectual,
people who may or may not like Star Trek.) I also
think robotics will play a major role and I think I
like the idea of an entirely automated contsruction
process for something as big as a space colony!

One more thing, maybe it was a topic a long time ago,
but I heard NASA tracks all objects bigger than a golf
ball in Earth orbit for safety reasons of the shuttle.
Would this extent of observation be necessary for all
space operations? Or can industrial space slag be
used as shielding?