How to Create a Lunar Klondike

Glenn Harlan Reynolds wrote: A few weeks ago, I wrote about the role of the X-Prize in promoting private space efforts, and noted that those efforts were likely to be cleverer, and cheaper, than government programs have been. Now there’s a prediction that the X-Prize will be won by the end of the summer.
In addition, there’s new legislation that will facilitate private efforts (including those of hobbyists) to pioneer new space technologies. The writer Rand Simberg has a roundup of discussion on that topic.
This is all good news, and I strongly suspect that the settlement of outer space will ultimately happen — as the settlement of the Americas did — as much by the initiative of individuals and small groups as by big government programs. (Whether it was the Pilgrims in the Mayflower, or the proto-Indians who crossed over the Bering land bridge, neither got here via Big Government efforts.) Read More