Space Colonization

Most transhumanists are very pro-space, for a variety of reasons. Remaining limited to Earth is not only contrary to the transhumanist mindset of expansion, growth and evolution but also downright dangerous: killer meteors, nuclear wars, resource scaricity and customized plagues are real possibilities in the present, and in the future nanotechnology might give tremendous destructive power to very small groups.

There are also positive reasons to explore and colonize space, ranging from sheer curiosity, the will to explore and the search for freedom to pragmatic reasons such as gaining resources and energy, living space and safety.

Sections

Other Sites
Books
See Also

Space Organizations

The First Millennial Foundation has a detailled plan for getting into space, based on several step starting with ocean colonization. See also Distant Star, their electronic magazine.
British Interplanetary Society
Island One Society. A quite complete website about space colonization a la Gerard O'Neill.
Space Studies Institute
Lunar Resources Company (The Artemis Project) "Going to the Moon using shameless commercialism" - it might work.
National Space Society
International High School Space Settlement Design Competition

Space Activism Web Sites

Planet MARS Home Page. A private enterprise directed towards mars colonization. Has a somewhat assertive "can do" attitude that may attract some, repel some.
Mars Direct Home Page. Supports a manned Mars mission in the near future. Has some interesting papers.
PERMANENT, Projects to Employ Resources of the Moon and Asteroids Near Earth in the Near Term.
Mars Society
Alex Michael Bonnici's Space Exploration Pages.
The SpaceGeek Page. Links to space technology.
Space Colonization in Yahoo

General

Has Space a Future? by P. Creola (Address to the Annual Meeting of the Swiss Academy of Technical Sciences, Bern, 22/23 September 1994)
Forum: Gerard K. O'Neill on Space Colonization and SETI (from Cosmic Search Vol. 1 No. 2).
Our Future in the Cosmos - Space by Isaac Asimov (from Impact of S cience on Society) Review of The Millenial Project, by Jonathan Burns.

Space Technology and Science

The Case for Mars, International Conference for the Exploration and Colonization of Mars. Plenty of Mars resources.
Basics of Spaceflight. Introductory textbook from NASA.

Propulsion

Starship design page of the Lunar Institute of Technology.
Canonical List of Space Transport Methods V0.76. All kinds of space transport methods, ranging from the traditional (chemical rockets) to the very unconventional (beanstalks, ionospheric current loops and gamma ray thrusters).
Propulsion Systems

Launch

A Rocket a Day Keeps the High Costs Away by John Walker. About the logistics and economics of space launch.
Earth-to-orbit Transportation Bibliography. Ranges from the conventional to the utterly original.
The Electromagnetic Propulsion Homepage. Using coilguns to send cargo to orbit.
Black Horse. A single stage to orbit reusable launch vehicle. The idea is to refuel it from a tanker aircraft in the air.
Tethers Unlimited. Using cables in space to change orbits or launch payloads.
The Lorrey Loop.

Solar Sails

Solar Sails
The Physics of Solar Sailing
The Microlight Solar Sail
SailAway R/D Project
Solar Sails

Nuclear

Project Orion: Its Life, Death, and Possible Rebirth by Michael R. Flora. One of the classic "Big Science" designs.
Antimatter Space Propulsion. Group at Penn State University studying how to use antimatter to augment fission and fusion for space propulsion.
Hydrogen Ice Spacecraft for Robotic Interstellar Flight by Jonathan Vos Post. A surprising design.

Interstellar

Small Laser-propelled Interstellar Probe by Geoffrey A. Landis
Proposed Methods of Interstellar Travel by Nathan Millard. Looks at solar and laser sails, particle beam acceleration, microwave propulsion, antimatter and nuclear pulse propulsion .

Habitats and Survival

Orbital Settlements: Space for the Rest of Us. A good introduction to space settlements.
Humans in Space. About space medicine, describing the health problems of space. Romance to Reality: moon & Mars expedition & settlement plans collected by David S. F. Portree. An annotated bibliography of Moon and Mars colonisation papers from the 50's to the present.
Space Colony Art from the 1970s. Classic pictures (although they reminds me a bit the pictures in the pamphlets of Jehova's Witnesses - always sunny, happy people and pleasant parklands. Reality will probably be quite a bit less elegant.)

Technologies, Economy and Raw Materials

The World's Energy Future Belongs in Orbit by Dr. Gerard K. O'Neill.
The Molecular Manufacturing Shortcut Group (MMSG) Position Paper on nanotechnology and its use in space-colonization.
System Architectures For Space Systems Using Molecular Nanotechnology by Thomas L. McKendree.
Implications of Molecular Nanotechnology Technical Performance Parameters on Previously Defined Space System Architectures by Thomas Lawrence McKendree.
Comet Mining, An Overview by Nick Szabo.
NASA and Self-Replicating Systems. About the NASA study about the feasibility of a self-replicating factory.
Institute for Teleoperated Space Development. It might be a good idea to send robots into space first.
An Evolutionary Path to SPS by Geoffrey A. Landis.
Solar Energy on Mars and on the Moon. How much energy is available, and how can it be used?
Future Spacecraft Sensors by Jonathan Vos Post
On the Economic Viability of Mars by Robert Zubrin.

Terraforming

Terraforming is closely related to mega technology, since it literally changes whole planets. The goal is to create a planet where a viable biosphere can live, hopefully also habitable for humans (or posthumans). Currently nanotechnology appears to be the most versatile tool for achieving this.

The Terraforming Information Pages. Maintained by Martyn J. Fogg. Reviews, bibliographies, simulators etc.
Terraforming and Ecopoesis. Page with technical references, speculation and fiction about terraforming. A bit of everything for everyone.
Bringing Life to Mars by Christopher P. McKay (Scientific American March 1999).
Mars the final frontier (New Scientist 1994).
Die Terraformung des Mars - Der Weg zu einer zweiten Erde by Christoph Kulmann.
Artesian Basins on Mars: Implications for Colonizing, the Search for Life and Terraforming. by Martyn Fogg (New Mars).
Terraforming Mars using self replicating molecular machines by Robert J. Coppinger.
The Drexlerian Terraformation of Mars: A New Ark for Humanity by Robert J. Coppinger (in The Assembler, First Quarter 1996). An extension of the above paper, going into more detail on how to terraform Mars.
Biology and the Planetary Engineering of Mars by Julian A. Hiscox. How can various forms of life be used in ecopoiesis and terraforming.
Planetary Engineering Bibliography by Martyn J. Fogg
Genesis: an Epic Poem by Fred Turner. 10,000 lines of iambic pentameter describing the terraforming of Mars.

Other Sites

Books

Gerard K. O'Neill The High Frontier: Human Colonies in Space. William Morrow & Co., N.Y 1976