This is also why our rotation slows every year as the moon goes further away. Eventually we would stop spinning but the sun will explode first.

New advances in high tech building materials are around the corner especially as production methods of graphene advance it will likely become the plastic of this century. Its amazing properties will not only make life on Earth better but will greatly reduce the weight and thus cost of going to space. In addition this material may make a space elevator finally possible which would greatly lower costs. There is a lot of land and resources off world and so there is always going to be profit to be made in sending man out there to exploit it. The place where I see government stepping in is going to be some of the big issues like terraforming the planets and moons. In order to ensure the continued survival of mankind we first reach out into our solar system and then into the stars. In a long distant future when our star dies out the human race will live on spread thought the galaxy. While it may be many billions of years humans will know that there home was Earth and that our generation was the one that made the crucial steps to moving into the stars.


On another note I still think that land based terraforming is not enough and too limiting. I think that though the development of space based terraforming we can make places where humans would never imagine livable. If you start to address the issue as gravitational instead of climate you can see better possibilities with Venus. I am not aware of anyone else that shares this idea but if there is anyone else that has made claim to this please let me know.

Venus is much closer to earth's gravity and thus a human body would have less problems adapting to the gravitation force there. However there is currently no way to land there due to the climate which is caused by a run away green house effect. Solution, remove the sun. By blocking the sun out though the construction of a planetary shield in orbit around the planet the temps can lower and we can begin to take the climate under control. This shield could also double as a massive solar power plant and space station. This would greatly aid in the creation of the initial colonies. Once the planet cools we can take actions to thin the atmosphere and promote the natural creation of oxygen though the use of plant life as there currently is a massive amount of Co2 in the atmosphere. Over time we can create livable conditions with a breathable atmosphere. From there we know that the planet has had a rich volcanic history that should leave way to massive deposits of precious metals close to or even on the surface. The profitability of Venus is far greater than any of the other planets of the solar system. So while it may be hard that does not mean we should rule out a planet just b/c it does not appear we can colonize it.