Recently, my colleagues and I wrote a paper discussing the possibility of starting space industry in the next few decades, affordably and rapidly using a “bootstrapping” approach. Since the work was done by government employees, the content (other than formatting by the journal) is not copyrightable, so the following link provides a downloadable preprint of the article:
Preprint_Affordable bootstrapping of space industry and solar system civilization
The final, published version (copyrighted, with formatting and with slight edits compared to the preprint) is available for purchase from the ASCE, or can be obtained through most university libraries:
The paper was mentioned in a blog post on the White House website, here:
Bootstrapping a Solar System Civilization
I discussed it more fully in a series of interviews with Elizabeth Howell at Universe Today, here:
Building A Space Base, Part 1: Why Mine On The Moon Or An Asteroid?
Building A Space Base, Part 2: How Much Money Would It Take?