I remember somewhere that the UN, said that no earth nation can colonize space, if one is on another planet, who would care what the UN thought. Also the topic people claiming to buying land on the moon??? The only real way of solving this issue is what history calls DIVIDE AND CONQUER!
I learned that NASA about a year ago tried to buy parts on EBAY, because their computer equipment was ancient. I mean the idea of colonizing space is great but NASA is SOO underfunded. The World spends more on hair-care products than space. All the worlds energy problems can be easily solved in the vast untapped amounts of energy in space, helium-3 is supposedly abundant on the moon, could be used for Fusion Reactors, but we scurry around like cells under a microscope!
I was thinking of a replacement for the shuttle would be a Earth-based space cannon that would shoot space-ships into orbit. Good in theory except that the ordinary man would then be part of the ships interior paint job. I dont know if this idea is absolute rubbish, but you never know with all these light weight-high strength materials being developed. Maybe the cannon could incorporate some sort of electromagnetic railgun with the ship as the bullet.
By producing more space-craft and space industry, more satellites like the proposed terrestrial planet finders could be launched, allowing to us find more cool worlds.
Again with NASA, the Shuttle its all custom made parts, if we could mass-produce space craft, this would bring the cost and the bugs down to a minimum. Plus we wouldnt have to worry about population congestion, because space is full of space.
And with sci-fi shows, all the technology improves but the people are still doing the same old, does anybody find this odd?
Thanks for listening to my ramblings...