Hydrant wrote:
Would it be possible to colonize the North Pole? What about the Moon? Antarctica? The oceans? The interior of the Earth? The sky (with floating cities)?
The oceans are certainly a possibility, however the pressure deferential in space is far less than under water. In space you could survive for 90 seconds if you evacuated the 3psi O2 out of your lungs. Underwater, if a hull breach occurred and the habitat were at 1 atm, 15psi, your crushing death would be almost sudden. In space, a hull breach need not mean the loss of a ship or crew, although getting to anyone within those 90 seconds would be nearly impossible.
For the colonization of space to occur, proper economic infrastructure needs to be developed in low Earth orbit. There needs to be centrifugal greenhouse stations, battery charging solar array stations, cargo warehousing stations, ship construction stations, and transport hubs. After that, perhaps the colonization of the moon would be more able to take place, allowing for the mining of raw materials for habitat, station, and ship construction. The moon requires 1/25th the fuel to reach escape velocity as compared to the Earth, so mining materials from the moon would not be as costly to ship upwards as those mined from the Earth. Following this, interplanetary space stations between Earth and Mars orbit could be built to house cargo bays, greenhouses, and similar infrastructure as that in Earth orbit. After that, the terraformation and subsequent colonization of Mars would be more able to occur than at present.