opportunities in this solar system

first off, where are the objections comeing from. lot of them would
likely come from people who dont see the reason to leave earth
anyway. other objections would come from people that beleive we have
to have a planet under us.

2nd, there are mining oppurtunities all though the solar system. most
of them would require people who are born, live and die in space.
why? because of the cost of taking earth bound people to space. the
first generation would go because of pioneering spirit. after that,
people would not understand why people would expect to live under an
atmosphere and open skys.

i dont beleive that saturn will be the first city, it will likely be
in earth orbit.

--- In spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com, Douglas May wrote:
>
> Most of the objections I hear against orbital space colonies have
to
> do with economics. Specifically, people don't see the value of
> spending enormous sums of money to house retail workers, janitors,
> clerks, barbers, tailors and other such people in a orbital city,
> when the main functions of such cities (zero-G research and
> manufacturing) could well be done by very small groups of
> professional "astronauts" on short 3-6 month tours. Like the
> international space station (only much better, hopefully).
>
> Because of the large transit time to the asteroid belt and the gas
> giants like Saturn, mining colonies in these places would need a
> larger population of non-astronauts, since return to Earth would be
a
> rare occurrence. Saturn is several years away, and has enormous
> potential as a mining destination. Plus it's gravity would make it
a
> good base for slinging probes and spacecraft to the great beyond.
> It's close enough to the sun that solar energy would still be
useful,
> and its radiation belts are much more manageable than Jupiter's.
>
> I'm beginning to think that Saturn's isolation from the Earth
makes
> it a great location for the first true city in space. Earth bound
> settlements likely would be so controlled by our governments and
> corporations that they would be feel more like a military base
with
> it's one PX store and commissary and such rather than feeling like
a
> real living city.
>
> I hear lots of "plans" to build settlements orbiting Earth, as
well
> as bases on the moon, Mars, asteroids, and even distant stars.
Does