The possibility of making space flight, and space vehicles relatively cheaply is likely to revolutionise space.

Will nanotech prompt space colonization, or eliminate the need for it?

Gerard K. O'Neill proposed housing citizens of a technological civilization in large space stations he called "colonies," each with up to 20 million people [9], [10], [11]. These O'Neill style colonies were large cylinders with spherical end-caps, rotating to provide a standard 1 g of pseudogravity on the inner surface. O'Neill suggested that if made of steel such a colony might reasonably be 3.2 km in radius, and 32 km long [10].