“As far as I can tell, “space settlement” is only an industry in this sense: advocating for colonizing and exploiting outer space is a vocation for a small group of people, most of whom appear to know each other. Some of these people have been making a living at advocating for this idea – or “dream,” as they tend to call it – for decades. They share the same belief system – that “we” (humans) have a right to go where we want, live where we want, do what we want, and take what we want.”

Reader comments in response to Dr. Billings’ remarks are well-worth perusing. Here is one of my favorites.

Paul Says:
July 29, 2013 at 7:07 am
If space remains a place that is merely visited, rather than settled, it’s difficult to see why we should be spending much money on manned space activities. Perhaps colonization advocates are disconcerting because they are the only ones answering the question “why are we doing all of this?”