If we don't go to space, we die as a species. I'm not saying we'll make it, although I'd like to think we will, just that it's necessary. People need more resources, there are infinite resources in space. Therefore, we need space.

Is there water on the moon? A clean gasoline alternative? No. There are rocks. Lots of useless rocks.

space elevators seem good, but wasn't it shown that they won't be people friendly due to the high radiation once you get beyond a certain point.
would surely work for goods and robots though.

This is a book about returning to space in the face of fear and adversity. It's a book about glory. About going back to space, because it's waiting for us, and it's where we're meant to be. We can't allow human space exploration to become our history.

Also, could you imagine showing a corporate finance department a project with a return on investment of about 500 years. Not many investors could stomach that.

Here is an idea: Send battle-hardened, strong-minded soldiers and marines on the long trips into space. We are conditioned to live with the bare minimal (of) life’s necessities and are trained to be prepared for … the worst conditions that any environment could throw at us.

Hell, me and my men will go, set up a colony somewhere and await colonists to arrive.

For the first time, physicists have been able to identify individual returning photons after firing and reflecting them off of a space satellite in orbit almost 1,500 kilometres above the earth. The experiment has proven the possibility of constructing a quantum channel between Space and Earth.