On Thursday, February 17, 2000 7:58 AM Anders Sandberg asa@nada.kth.se
wrote:
> While I strongly support space colonisation both to ensure human
> survival in a likely turbulent future and promote human exploration
> and diversity, it is currently not very economic. It needs to be that
> before we will see any large scale colonies.
I am much of the same mind here. But I also think the high cost of space
transport now has a lot to do with the inefficient way in which government
transportation operations work. Lowering the cost of transport is at least
one major factor in lowering the overall cost of human survival in space.
(Also, if transport costs became superlow, then survival costs would
likewise plummet. I mean if it cost next to nothing to move supplies to
space, even extant life support systems could be used for long term
exploration and settlement of space.:)
In my 1996 essay on the subject
(http://mars.superlink.net/neptune/SpaceCol.html), I advocate small scale
colonization. I think starting out big, for now, is doomed. (Yeah, I know:
add nanotech and anything is possible, but you have to have the nanotech
first.:) I also argue, this is the way much actual human (and even nonhuman
organism) colonization has happened.
Daniel Ust
http://mars.superlink.net/neptune/
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