For proof that man will soon live in outer space, you need only look at Christopher Columbus. Or so said space whiz and senior SETI astronomer Seth Shostak during a lecture last night at NASA Ames.Shostak presented, for the first time, his ideas on the parallels between ocean going explorers and today's space pioneers. The explorers, he argued, moved from setting out on their first voyages to creating rather accurate maps of the continents in a span of about fifty years. From that point on, naval powers focused on colonizing the new lands they had discovered.Astronomers have mimicked the discovery portion of this journey over the past fifty years by producing a map of the Solar System, Shostak said. Next up, we'll set out to colonize space."The big picture comes when you step back and realize this is the one generation making the atlas of the solar system," Shostak said. "That is what's happening."Columbus "discovered" a "new land" in 1492 and kicked off a flurry exploration made possible by innate human wanderlust and improved technology. Columbus, however, didn't really know where he had traveled and didn't add a tremendous amount of mapping knowledge. But over the next 50 years, the likes of Magellan, Vespucci and Verrazano would deliver a pretty solid picture of most of the major land masses."

The basic globe was there," Shostak said. "One generation did that. All we have done since then is refine that globe."With a decent map in hand, the European powers set out to fund the colonization of the new world.A similar practice of mapping the solar system started in 1965 when Mariner 4 sent back much improved pictures of Mars, Shostak said.Since that time, astronomers – with the help of high-powered telescopes and various exploration vehicles and probes – have delivered stunning pictures of most of the planets and their moons. The quality of these images coupled with our knowledge has made it possible to target not one or two but several places where we might find life or where it might make sense for humans to set up shop.

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i really really PRAY that by then we will have gotten rid of the economy being fueled by money

because if not, then its going to cost MUCH to get off this planet onto opne that could have newer oppurtunities!!!

i am so excited about the thought of colonizing another planet...i really hope that we will have developed a way to have unlimited resources (through cloning, technology and cold fusion) and no more money

i beg!!!...i want to have a chance to live on another planet!...i see such amazing things to come with this!

I think that until the end of the 21st we will atleast colonize one of the moons or planets in our solar system (besides earth).
I think around 2050 we'll see the beginning of moon colonization, mainly sceintific.
There might even be few attempts to establish research stations on Mars during this century.
And I'm pretty certain we'll discover extra-terrestrial life forms within the next 50 years top.

agreed.

and perhaps by the early 23rd century we will make "Halo's" (Artificial Ring-Worlds)

That's in 200 years from now... I can't even imagine how the world will look like in 100 years, let alone 200.
If technology will keep evolving that fast, with life-changing technologies appearing every decade (computers in late 1970s, internet in the late 1980s, cellphones in the 1990s, media revolution of the mid-1990s and early 2000s, etc.), I have no idea what we will be facing a decade from now.
Think of how CDs, MP3s, cellphones and the internet have changed our lives... I mean if you'll go back 20 years and tell that to someone, that in few years all these things would appear, he'll laugh at your face.

Mining the asteroid belt makes sense. Lots of goodies to be had and with their low gravity, they are easier to get on and off of with less fuel. We have landed on one asteroid already and that was done with a craft that wasn't even designed for landing.

I think that the space elevator, if succesfully built, will accelerate space colonization significantly and things will get done much quicker and cheaper. Space elevator should be built within 12 years, 24 days and 10 minutes at the time of this post!

http://www.liftport.com/