I'm sure I've shown the above 70's space colonization video before; but, I recently found the 1960 video shown below.
The 1960 video has the point that if we can just establish a presense in space by means of space stations in orbit and/or on the surface of the moon, the rest of the solar system is a lot easier to get to than from the surface of the Earth. The surface of the Earth has a larger gravity well, and the atmosphere presents friction problems just trying to get off the surface, much less trying to get back. The only problem as Robert Zubrin and others have pointed out, the moon doesn't have many naturally occurring materials, like water. My thought is bring materials from asteroids/comets. SpaceX's recent reusable rocketry makes space more accessable. SpaceX and Bigalow inflatable space stations can also make asteroid material tapping more practical. Both the moon and Mars will become accessable. We'll be officially established in space imo, when we build spacecraft in space; spacecraft that can only exist in space. Today, we have to build spacecraft that can both survive the rocketry from the surface of the Earth and the vacuum of space.
- science/technology extra,
Grant funds development of improved nanoscale additive manufacturing (3D printing)
Between grapheme and 3d printing advances like above, nanomanufacturing will revolutionize everything, including space access. 3d printing seems to be developing and proving that it can also bootstrap to full fledged Feynman/Drexlerian nanomanufacturing. Before then, the world will have been transformed as it is. In some ways, I like the 3d printing anyways; it doesn't have the self-replicating problems of Eric Drexler's vision.
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