It sounds like good prep for space exploration, along with permanent arctic/antarctic settlements; high tech, expensive commercial exploitation of remote, hostile environments.

But like space, the key isn't whether it is possible, but whether it is profitable. Sure, we've had the tech for decades, but there is nothing there to attract business, no opportunities for investors. All of Clarkes dreams of underwater mining and agriculture materialized in very differnt ways, ways which could be done remotely, from the surface. Government has done some useful scientific work there, (and some very impressive military ops) but there has been little cash return.

We have successfully exploited the continental shelves commercially in our search for oil, (offshore drilling platforms) which I guess is analogous to the private effort in comsats and orbiting earth resources and nav tech platforms, but that has not automatically led to the development of any further infrastructure which could lead to true colonization.

I hate to keep on harping on this, but after all, this is what this forum is primarily about, isn't it? We should be speculating on where the money is in space, and then coming up with ways to lobby government to open up those fields so private capital will be attracted there. But the fact remains, if we are going to wait for private enterprise to lead us into space, we are going to wait for a long time.

Of course, if massive government exploration and survey work turns up something "out there" really worth going after, this could all change overnight. Private enterprise will have no trouble raising private funding and spending that money effectively. But it ain't going to happen just because us space groupies want it to happen, or because we believe it ought to happen.

Just one wild-ass speculation: private SETI. If government investment turns up high bandwidth extraterrestrial signals, AND if those signals aren't just beacons or hails, but are alien attempts to transmit their cultural and tecnological legacy across the galaxy, then monitoring and deciphering those signals could turn up information of immense financial value. This is a commodity people would pay money for, and other people would pay money to invest in its collection and processing (really big radio telescopes at the Lagrangians, or solar-powered laser telescopes).

A long shot? Sure, but no more so than asteroid mining, orbiting solar microwave power stations, or O'Neill habitat marijuana farming. At any rate, it would make a great SF story: Evil corporation lobbies corrupt government to gain monopoly of alien tech "intellectual property". You want fusion power or a cure for cancer? Get ready to pay for it, bucko.