A review of current thinking about how to achieve space settlement: Living in Space 6: Beyond O’Neill – Space Safety Magazine –

Going by the above, it may seem like the topic of Space Settlement is effectively dead. A handful of papers and two designs in over 30 years may seem dire, but in fact the conversation has merely shifted. While research and debate continues, the field has moved from direct discussion of habitats to discussing and researching ‘routes’ to settlement. No longer do we see books and papers on colony designs and their implications, instead we see discussion on asteroid mining, space tourism, and planetary defense. “There’s not a whole lot going on for the simple reason that there is no institutional money available,“ Globus told us. “There is money available for the paths to space settlement (tourism, space solar power, and planetary defense[2]), or at least the first and third.  There is a lot of progress in those areas.”

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Here’s the latest update from Mars One, a group that ‘s pursuing its own road to space settlement: Mars One Newsletter – July 2014.