Digest 1105 Msg 7

Personally, I'd put resource extraction ahead of manufacturing.

1> Solar satellites
2> Asteroid wrangling for platinum group metals, or possibly He3
3> Comet wrangling for volatiles

I would expect that only excess capacity would be used for building
new colony components.

> What's wrong with a good pyramid scheme? It's only unethical if, somewhere
> along the way, you don't have the ability to deliver the promised goods. I
> wonder what the economics are of having an in-space manufacturing work
> force; I would bet they are good.
>
> Of Fred
>
> The first colonies would get their business building colonies?
>
> That sounds like something of a pyramid scheme, does it not?
>
> I always thought that the primary function of an economically feasible
> space colony would be the construction of large-scale space projects
> of all kinds.
>
> > According to the O'Neill, model, Colonies will have as a major goal
> > that of self-replication.
>

Remember, money is power:
http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/06/05/news/class.php