Redesigning O Neill cylinders

From: Alan Patrick [mailto:a.patrick@...]

"Not to mention various other materials eg metals, composites, computer
chips etc.....the key will be to get the raw materials from low gravity
areas to remove the cost of earth-side supply. "

Oh, yeah. The reason I specified pharms was that, even *with* Earth-based
materials, they could be profitable. This would let folks start getting
something back on their investments before we've reached those "low gravity
areas" for our resources. But once we *do* start tapping the treasure trove
of Lunar and NEO materials, the only problem will be figuring out how the
`Earthers' are going to pay for all the stuff that the 'Spacers' are making
for them.

"The Internet was not around in O'Neill's day, and as far as I can see there
has been little consideration of using space habitats for information
industries. "

Such as? I can't think of anything in the "information industries" that
could be done in space that couldn't be done just as well on Earth. If there
is, I'm all for it, but... what?

Dave