Futuof Space Colonization

On Tuesday, May 28, 2002, at 07:26 PM, Thetis Reticulum wrote:

> One rather large and unattractive problem: the current
> economy hasn't the guts or motivation to pull off
> projects of this magnitude: you need one that works
> based upon the fulfillment of the civilization's need,
> not on the accumulation of profit.

European colonization of North America is perhaps the best analogue of
space colonization in recent history (sea life colonizing land is
better, but a long time ago). Profit was one of the major motivators.

The materials in one asteroid (the largest ) are sufficient to make
orbital space colonies with ~500 times the surface area of the Earth in
usable real estate. See http://lifesci3.arc.nasa.gov/SpaceSettlement/
for details.

Al Globus
CSC at NASA Ames Research Center
http://www.nas.nasa.gov/~globus/home.html