Colonising Space/Links

General space advocacy organisations

• Space Settlement Institute
• Space Studies Institute
• National Space Society
• Space Frontier Foundation
• Mars Society
• British Interplanetary Society
• Alliance to Rescue Civilization, an organisation that aims to create an off-Earth backup of human civilisation that is able to repopulate the Earth in event of a global disaster or reintroduce knowledge of science and the arts.

Open-source space organisations and projects

• CosmosCode - "Open Source Software Development for Space Exploration" from NASA's Ames Research Centery
• Copenhagen Suborbitals & [1], a low-budget open-source project to put a man in space (these guys really are putting their welding torches where their mouth is...)
• Open Luna - attempting open-source lunar expeditions, initially robotic-based
• Team FREDNET - "a group of scientists, technologists, and engineers who are using their combined talents to create a timely and elegant solution to win the Google Lunar X PRIZE"
• OpenVirgle.net - sustainable living in space using free and open source technology.
• Anansi Spaceworks is at the early stages of attempting to use open source principles to develop space technology

Other

• Space Colonies: The High Frontier by Gerard K. O'Neill. In equal parts inspiring and hard-headed
• Some interesting quotes about why we should colonise space: http://www.sylviaengdahl.com/space/quotes.htm
• Going into space may be one of the best things we can do to save our world, and ourselves (Cosmos magazine)
• Mining the Sky by Prof. John S. Lewis about space-based resources available to us