I would add asteroid mining and trade in lunar oxygen for use in space as at least potential near-term benefits.

Also, in my opinion, your numbers four and five collectively are the single most important reason for human spaceflight. While we are rapidly converting ourselves to a mono-culture, mono-economy, and mono-political ideology down here, variety in all of these spheres is critical for the long-term survival of our species. In the future, that will only be possible out in the Solar System.

— Donald

1) Advances in CELSS technology will help to advnace the state of the art in things like recycling and work environment management systems.

2) Tapping a 4.5 billion year power supply doesn’t need much explanation.

3) Materials science advances from alloys to ceramics to glasses can have all kinds of benefits down here on Earth.

4) Small settlements allow for unique experiments in governance in a ‘controlled’ setting.

5) Small settlements also allow for the creation of micro-cultures that evolve different societal values and mores, as well as arts, music, literature, other muses. Definitely a plus for civilization.

6) New industries that none of us here can envision will develop. I’m personally curious about the optical qualities of the anhydrous glass on the Moon. Can we have better and lighter eyeglasses as a result? Who knows?

7) I want to make vacuum spheres (a) for a commercial audience but more importantly (b) for the academic and (c) industrial markets. How cool would be a meter long cylinder with scale models of a hammer and feather inside? Schools would eat that up. What could private industry do with a 6m^3 volume of hard vacuum for an inexpensive price?

8) Greater operational security could be ensured by having orbital crews making regular runs to GEO or HEO. This capacity would also enable larger, more powerful arrays that could ensure that DISH customers never get rained out.

9) I’d consider asteroids to be one of the low-probability problems that needs to be solved, and having the kind of robust space-based assets necessary to support settlement would also enable some capability to address the problem. I’d be happy if we just got a sunward-looking NEO scope up at EML-1 for starters.

10) Experimenting with crops in micro and partial gravity may allow greater insight into their biological functioning, which could be of benefit in agricultural applications.

Shall I continue?

How? Please explain.

On the other hand, if you understand the reasons for space colonization, you see that we’ll need experince with humans in space. The simple fact is, if we gave a sustained effort at colonization, we open up so many possiblities to solve our problems on this planet.

Yes, space colonization is total nonsense.

You are.

Seriously though, we’ll just have to wait it out and pick up the pieces when it’s all over. The SCHTICK is going nowhere, we’ll have pictures of Pluto before we land a man on the moon. Oops, I forgot, we already landed a man on the moon, didn’t we.

I’m just waiting around for the whole shebang to collapse, so that private industry can build a space colonization friendly SSTO/RLV out of the remaining SSMEs.

Still buiding strawmen and not rockets I see there Thomas.

And you are trying to laud the ‘MSM’ for advocation cutting manned spaceflight as equalling ‘not big government’ when they are merely robbing Peter to pay Paul.

If my tax dollars must be confiscated, let it be on something with a sliver of a chance of advancing human spaceflight. Not pretty pictures for a handfull clique of astronomers or welfare spending that reinforces negative work ethics and dependancies on government by large numbers or our population.