Getting paid in space

On Aug 18, 2006, at 11:54 PM, Ryan Lokey wrote:

> On a final note, I haven't paid much attention to all the
> discussions lately. Is this group just discussing ideas for future
> creation of space stations, or is there some type of team gathering
> information and constructing business plans, gathering funders and
> luring in supporters? We are still 15-20 years off from having a
> privately owned space station, and if you guys aren't working
> closer to the goal, who will?

Ryan,

Yeah, most of the discussions here seem to be about how we're going
to run a settlement 100 years from now. Occasionally someone will
discuss more short term problems like launch, or asteroid retrieval.

My one comment about power-money: Yes energy will be the most
universally useful form of currency, but since stations will have so
much solar energy available, energy will be almost free. There will
be no rarity, and most stations will be energy-independent, having no
need to cash in their credits for your joules. I'm not sure in a
highly diverse, widely scattered space population that there could be
just 1 "gold-standard" that would be equally attractive to all. I
think barter, diplomacy, and money markets will be major players in
stellar economies.

Back to the 21st century, though:

What are the primary reasons we haven't built a space settlement yet?
I think an obvious answer is the cost of Earth launch, but are there
others? Perhaps we could come up with a laundry list of problems we
need to solve before O'Neill's 30 year old designs become a reality.
Obviously he underestimated some of the problems since he felt we
would be there by now. Underestimation of the problems seems to be
rampant in the space industry. Once we are there, will we really be
able to establish an economy that will make business and workers
come, or will space settlements only be filled will rich sci-fi nuts
and religious fanatics who want to get away from Earth?

doug