I'm confident that space colonization will be realistic within my lifetime(I'm 20). Will we be able to reach distant stars(not actually reach them but have the technology to get there in a reasonable amount of time) within the next 200 years? I have no idea, it all depends on the growth of space/fuel technologies.

Hoteliers already have plans for holidays.. with a difference....
Hotels in Space
President, Hilton Hotels Corporation
Barron Hilton
http://www.spacefuture.com/archive/hotels_in_space.shtml

The present thinking in the Hilton organization on the possibility of an orbiting hotel is described, followed by an outline of how a Lunar Hilton might be designed. Suggestions from a feasibility study of a lunar hotel prepared by a group students in Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration are discussed. Whereas the Orbiter Hilton would be free in space, the Lunar Hilton would be located below the moon's surface and include about 100 guest rooms.

http://money.cnn.com/2006/12/22/magazines/...otels/index.htm
Vacations in outer space
Has the holiday chaos got you thinking about the perfect winter getaway? Before long the trip of your dreams might just be thousands of miles above you.

Bob Bigelow, the 60-year-old owner of the Budget Suites of America hotel chain and a reclusive innovator who exhibits almost a childish glee. He can afford to: Budget Suites pays the bills and then some, enabling Bigelow to spend $500 million on a pet project called Bigelow Aerospace. The venture's slogan is "Getting you excited again about space."
An $8 million escape to space

http://www.space.com/peopleinterviews/khalili_profile.html
NASA has shown renewed interest in Khalili's experiments this year. Dr. Lewis Peach, former director of NASA's Advanced Project for Human Space Flight, was asked by NASA to visit Khalili at Cal-Earth to consider the lunar prototype and the viability of "space block" structures in space.

"Space blocks" are made from fiber tubes or long sandbags filled with soil and stacked to form arches, domes and vaults. Between the rows, lengths of barbed wire, or even Velcro, are stretched to prevent the bags from shifting in relation to each other.

Peach, who remains very much involved with NASA's Mars Human Space Flight project, as well as Robotics programs, said he "sees the use of indigenous resources in space as really compelling because it allows humans to sustain a presence on Mars for a long term without taking from Earth."

He believes Khalili's style of architecture is a nice fit for NASA's "faster, better, cheaper" credo. "If you don't have to take all of the materials with you, and you can use habitat for radiation shielding, it will bring costs way down and make long-term habitation more feasible," he said.

http://groups.msn.com/SpaceColonizationCom...ID_Message=4984

Farming on the moon...


Illumination during the two-week long lunar night will be produced by microwave sulfur lamps with flexible fiber optic light-pipes that direct the light to the places where it is needed most. Light will not simply be scattered all over the place to be absorbed by the stone walls. Sulfur lamps will provide light in the visible range with very little infrared or ultraviolet. These revolutionary light sources can produce 95 lumens per watt.1 Incandescents yeild only 20 lumens per watt and fluorescents give 50 lumens per watt. Sulfur lamps don't even have electrodes to burn out!
In 1925, A Text-Book of Physics suggested that night time street lighting required less than one lumen per square foot. The average living room only a few lumens per square foot. Offices and classrooms needed 5 to 10 lumens per square foot. Workplaces where fine handicrafts, engraving, sewing or drafting were being done needed 10 to 20 lumens per square foot.2 Today, we find values of 75 foot-candles ( one ft. candle= one lumen/sq. ft. or 10 lux) for reading and office work, 50 ft. c. for machine operation and 50-300 ft. c for bench work.3 The noon-day Sun gives off 10,000 lumens per square foot at Earth's surface! Plants need more light than humans and animals do, but not this much. Many plants only need 200 lumens per square foot for good growth! The small tropical Chinese Evergreen plant, Aglaonema modestum, only needs 100 lumens per square foot ( same thing as 100 foot candles) and can get by on as little as 10 lumens per sq. foot.4 The Bamboo Plant, Chamaedorea erumpens, requires just 100 to 150 foot candles. The coffee plant, coffee arabica , a necessity for us groggy old lunar prospectors and rich travelers, needs 150 to 1,000 lumens per square foot.5 Tomatoes, sweet peas and everbearing strawberries need 1500-2000 foot candles and cucumbers require 4000 foot candles.6

Although we can generate the electricity needed to furnish the crops with light, there are many other strategies to make lunar farming successful. It has been found that plants can be grown for two weeks at a time in sunlight and then put into "suspended animation" in darkness by refrigerating them for two weeks at a time. By doing this, some crops can be raised with no artificial light or power drain at all.7 Mushrooms can be raised in the dark. Three pounds of edible fungi per square foot of garden space can be harvested every fifteen weeks.8 Algae like Spirulina can be cultivated during the lunar day. Since blue-green algae can double its mass four times a day, in five days 100 grams of algae could reach a mass of 100 metric tons if it has enough water tank volume, minerals and carbon dioxide. It is therefore possible to grow enough algae while free sunlight is available during the lunar day to feed livestock throughout the month. Fish can eat algae. Goats and pigs will eat anything. Alage is actually very nutritious, high in protein, minerals and vitamins. Chickens might eat pellets of algae. Mushrooms could feed the animals to. Moon dirt could be mixed with algae and mushrooms, allowed to rot and form a rich compost, and earthworms could be farmed in the rich dirt. Chickens and fish will eat chopped worms. Livestock won't need more than a few lumens per square foot to see. Fungi and worms won't need any light and algae only needs to grow by day. Clearly, a lunar diet rich in fish, chicken, eggs, pork, goat meat, goat's milk, cheese, butter and cream can be produced without artificially illuminated crops at all! Eggs and liver are rich in vitamin A, so nobody will die due to a lack of carrots. Meat has plenty of B-complex. Milk contains vitamin D or people can just sunbathe for 10-20 minutes a day. Some vitamins C and E are still desired, and so is some fiber. Some wheat for whole wheat bread and dough, tomatoes, potatoes, lettuce, grapes, strawberries, cucumbers and pumpkins can be grown with sulfur lamp illumination by night or by using the nightime refrigerating technique, which will not require any heavy machinery; we will simply turn off the heat in the garden chambers and let them cool down.

A diet heavy on meat, fish and dairy products consumed during a two-week vacation on the Moon will not irreparably damage anybody's coronary arteries. Hotel workers, miners and scientists spending a couple of years on the Moon won't die of heart disease either if they stay fit. Fish, chicken and lean goat chops might be preferable to lots of eggs, heavy cream and bacon for the health conscious Lunans.

The Moon will never support billions of people like the Earth does or Mars could after centuries of terraforming, but it doesn't have to. Millions of miners, scientists, workers and tourists who are the life blood of the Moon can be supported by the underground farms in lava tubes and man-made tunnels that will someday be planted in the Moon. Eventually, craters will be domed over with giant bi-layer silicone bubbles with five meter thick water shields for radiation protection.9 Fusion powerplants will supply electricity for the sulfur lamps and the resources of near Earth asteroids will be utilized. Subway tunnels will interconnect the domed craters. The Moon will become a fantastic playground and a jewel for all citizens of Earth, like the Great American West today.

But caves don't need to be hauled Mars-ward, proponents point out. And caves could provide protection against the harsh radiation there, which occurs because the thin atmosphere barely filters the sun. Some researchers have speculated that martian caves might hold stores of water ice.

A martian biosphere

Frederick goes further than some proponents of cave dwelling by suggesting that a translucent, inflatable balloon could be used to seal openings while still allowing light in. Settlers might then fill the cave with oxygen. Add a little water and an entire ecosystem might be possible.

"In some way it could be seen as a very primal experience," Frederick says. "Leaving the womb of Mother Earth to live within Mars. And perhaps help Mars become another Earth."

-=lots of stuff (see above)=-

I don't see Man getting anywhere in our Solar System until we stop being so dependent on money.

I'm just not sure about the form such inspiration has taken.

If Europa is found to have life in it's oceans then that will be the sign that Earthlings must move on from thier world. It will be the only thing powerful enough to motivate mankind enough to move off of Earth. I believe that life will be found elswere in the solar system then on Mars but it will be Mars that mankind will colonize first. From were we go after Mars is anyones guess.

I don't see Man getting anywhere in our Solar System until we stop being so dependent on money. While the sole driving force behind our lives is money and greed, we will constantly hold ourselves back for fear of 'losing'. The real kicker is, with the wealth of minerals and natural resources out there, whoever does go will make an absolute fortune. But that doesn't really matter to those with the money. If they can't see any definite returns for their investment, they won't risk it. We won't be going anywhere until we can get past this insatiable need for wealth.

The way I view it, is that there will be no desire to colonize another planet unless there is money to be made by doing so. It would be the gigantic corporations that would fund a colonization/terraforming project, providing the research and the raw materials to do it. If the corporations see no profit margin, we are screwed. Although if they discover gold or some other precious metal, that would be the driving force to colonize another planet and reap the benefits. So it boils down to humanity's greed and lust for money. We can't thrive as a civilization if we put dollar bills before fellow humans.

Well, if we can develop a proper space drive it would certainly help.

[That’s how I see it. Mind you, I am not an astrophysicist. Nor am I a professional ist of any kind. Anywizzle, if you feel mankind will go to space and colonize (more specifically, in the next 100 years), I’d appreciate reading your hopeful (and hopefully realistic) reasons why. Of course I invite anyone else to discuss any portion of this thread.