This paper and a companion paper indicate that a rational lunar development scenario begins with establishment of a small base, with emphasis on early and continuing development of reliance on indigenous resources. This permits economic expansion of the base, and lower cost operations in space through use of lunar oxygen, including lower cost trips to Mars. Continuing development of an extraterrestrial resource industry enables a transition to a permanent self-sufficient settlement; the settlement is thus not a result of special development but a natural outcome of the economic development of space. A further conclusion of these studies is that these developments can begin at any time and are affordable within the range of present government funding of space developments. The potential economic benefit of colonies in space begins to become clearer. A self-sufficient colony exists for its own reasons. Unlike a base, it need not be entirely supported by the parent economy. If the colony can generate export labor either through a labor surplus or by trade, it can offer trade to the parent economy that is beneficial to both. Furthermore, a high-tech economic unit, as a space colony must be to survive, creates an economic and social diversity benefitting all societies that correspond with it either economically or culturally. This, of course, was the real benefit to Europe for colonizing the Western hemisphere. In the long view of history, the opportunity for commerce and cultural exchange with extraterrestrial human societies will surely become the overriding benefit of space development.
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