In article <REM-2004may29-008@Yahoo.Com>, RobertMaas@YahooGroups.Com 
wrote:

From: Joe Strout <joe@strout.net>
After we've used the materials in the asteroid belt, and dismantled
the moons of the giant planets, the obvious next targets are the Kuiper
belt and the Oort cloud.  Our Oort cloud extends about three light
years out from the Sun.  If Alpha Centauri has a similar Oort cloud,
then its cloud overlaps with ours.  So by colonizing the Oort cloud,
you're already starting to colonize the next star.

Where do farcomet homesteaders get a supply of energy?

Fusion, most likely.

Or area you assuming the problem of energy from fusion of hydrogen 
has been solved?

Yes.

What if it turns out a deep gravity well is the *only* way to fuse
hydrogen continuously, and blowing up hydrogen bombs to get energy is
not feasible for homesteaders, and homesteaders can't rely on energy
beamed from near-star, so this whole idea of yours collapses for lack
of energy to stay alive?

That's a whole big pile of what-ifs, and seems quite unlikely to me 
(especially when you add the necessary "...and there isn't some even 
better way to get energy which we early-21st-century Earthbound amateurs 
haven't thought of yet").

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