Re: Cyclers
Cyclers are nice because you can build a relatively large habitable volume, accelerate it *once*, and, then keep it there. The ships that you would use to reach the cycler can then be quite small -- just a little taxi, if you will. Thus, the overall fuel savings are tremendous.
By the way, I completely spaced out and used the term "cycler" innapropriately in my previous post. I was talking about an entire vehicle that would aerobrake back to LEO after every swingby, which *would* probably be the quickest to develop (since it doesn't require the development of a "space taxi" other than the Soyuz), but doesn't really have the advantages of a cycler. So, shame on me for conflating the terminology.
Cheers,
Nathan.