While being proximate to a larger city will provide opportunities for jobs and activities that can provide resources to individuals it would likely be desirable to begin to develop valuable businesses and resource generating enterprises within the community itself. To that end I would like to inquire as to what kinds of business people think that we might want to engage in.
Responses
Co-Founder, Space Cooperative
I'm no economist so this is a shot in the dark, but if we had to start a rural community from scratch I would say something in the category of resource extraction would be more likely. Tech, manufacturing, and high-tech jobs usually rely on access to dense established infrastructure (power, transportation, commmunications) while extractive economies can turn places like the north slope of Alaska or the Dakotas into boom towns. The downside is that it's not usually an ecologically or economically sustainable model.
Maybe we could find a natural nutrient plume in the ocean and sell farmed seaweed/algae/kelp along a major maritime shipping route? The least crazy idea I could come up with at the moment.
Concepts Development, Organisation, Operations Specialist
Perhaps some of the more unusual niches:
Emergency response and catastrophe response
Deployment of emergency housing
Deployment of emergency resources (food, water, medicine)
Deployment of emergency personnel (medical, infrastructure repair, support services, etc)
Evac and temporary community services
Community redevelopment services
Astronaut training, space industry training
Educational programme development
Space based technology and methods development
Adaptable modular systems development
Special environment testing
Procedures development for special environment industrial applications
Special environment research support
Oceanic assembly and launch facilities
Oceanic mining and research (ecofriendly mining and research techniques)
Holistic environmental and individual health research
Not retiring; not too shy
Here goes the space cowboy again: Southeast Wyoming offers:
Blockchain very welcome (You do that, right?) https://www.coindesk.com/haven-blockchain-case-wyoming/
Technology welcoming government:
https://www.endowyo.biz/about
https://www.forbes.com/sites/nishacharya/2017/11/10/wyoming-joins-the-innovation-startup-train/#516cc2963b53
SBIR help: http://www.uwyo.edu/sbir/
Supercomputing: https://nwsc.ucar.edu/
Wind Farms: https://cleantechnica.com/2017/07/15/largest-wind-farm-us-built-wyoming-lawmakers-want-raise-wind-tax/
Proximity to Universities of Wyoming and Colorado
Proximity to Colorado Aerospace resources
Lots of land, open spaces...buy a ranch, build a city!
56,000 sq ft. Underground bunker for sale. It was MADE for electronics by AT&T. Data storage, bitcoin security, good drainage, 56 degree temperature year round even without HVAC.
http://www.loopnet.com/Listing/3694-Hwy-34-Wheatland-WY/5870472/
No income tax
Rocket fuel HTP: http://www.xlspace.com/
Rocket engines: http://frontierastronautics.com/
Airframes: https://www.scionaviation.com/
Low Earth Orbit: http://www.exodusaerospace.com/
Low Crime Rate. But do not be tempted by the keys in the ignition...they have big dogs and guns.
Dark Skies and high plains...7000 feet closer to space!
Hunting and Fishing
Real Adventure: Plant your tech ranch like a colony...with RVs https://exospace.wordpress.com/2016/05/20/captains-log-13-may-2016-mars/
https://exospace.wordpress.com/2013/10/01/shakedown-breakdown/
Free Sample is possible: https://spiritspacecadet.wordpress.com/2018/01/14/burning-space-man-2018/
Wheatland is about twice the 1200 acres proposed...all you need for transportation is feet or a mobility scooter! Any ranch out here is probably bigger than that!
This is as rural as you can get with all the urban resources of Denver, Cheyenne, and Laramie close by. Try near space before you are stranded in deep space. There is plenty of adventure available for a preview!
Space Architect
One of the niches we could engage in is eco tourism, or actually analog eco tourism, where we build an eco resort on Earth that is completely off grid and sustainable, testing and proving the technologies we will use to colonize other planets! That is the concept we like to call Titanium Shores, or TISH.
And guess what, I found the perfect place!
There's this island off the coast of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, called Ilha Grande. The island has a few villages, no cars allowed and is a beautiful natural tourism destination. On the island, on a semi-isolated beach, there was a very rustic resort - I stayed there twice in the past. My sister visited the island last month and said that this resort closed. I don't know the circumstances, but IF we could buy that land, it would be perfect for TISH. Semi private beach, in a natural paradise, great weather, beach all year long, with hills, so we could have an observatory... This island is protected so we would have to build 100% green - which is exactly what we want! It's about 3h away from Rio (2 hour by car + 1 hour by boat), and Rio has direct flights to most international airports in the world. Plus, it's Rio :)
But anyway, I was just trying to sleep when I remembered this... Here are some pictures I took last time I was there (like some 12 years ago) and some links.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/suzibianco/467507348/in/album-72157600041837275/
Software Development/Government Design
Maybe we could grow food in verticle farms (which we need to learn to do for space anyway) and then freeze dry what we don't eat and sell it as astronaut food
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Software Development/Government Design
What about getting contracts to beta test equipment and techniques from government and private space programs?
Software Development/Government Design
One more thought on this. What if we become known for GMO versions of plants that can be grown in vertical hydroponic farms? We could try to engineer small versions of trees that still have full size fruit or short versions of corn and wheat. We could develop them in lab conditions in remote places like the Arctic Circle, where we might want to establish a Model City. The fear of the plants “escaping into the wild” should be decreased under these conditions. On Mars or the Moon there would be zero concern about escapes so I expect less resistance to GMO for space colonization.
