Who will do the exploring and colonising ?

 Hi All, 

I've written about this before, but I thought I would expand upon it. 

In terms of space exploration and colonisation, who will be doing this? The answer to my mind is a mixture of both state and private methods. Unlike in other science fiction wherein it is the state (e.g. the Empire in Star Wars or the Federation in Trek) that has the monopoly of exploration and colonisation, I believe a more realistic approach would be a free for all amongst these competing groups. 

Governments may want to colonise a strategic asset/planet or be forced to take over a private colony that is failing (for example the Fall of the East India Company) . But mostly I would suggest that government would only be active in exploration and colonisation if it were in a cold war with another power and be motivated either by prestige or fear that this 'other' would move in first. Alternatively there could be a situation in which the government does want to colonise, but is restrained by a budget or an ultra orthodox Treasury . In this case you could be in for a series of public-private partnerships, in which thanks to an accounting trick, the cost (like Gordon Brown's outsourcing and hospital building) takes time to appear on the public balance sheet. 

Private Corporations will be motivated by profit, be this in resources or such things as space tourism. I would also expect this companies to operate their colonies in a similar manner to the merchant shipping registry. In order to get around regulation, workers rights and have cheap costs, companies will use 'flags of convenience' . So just as Bermuda and Liberia have millions of tons of ships on their registry, you can well imagine that they  or other smaller less regulatory nations, would on paper be the world's largest colonial space powers.  

Religious Groups, will either be wanting to escape persecutions, such as Jews, Puritans and Catholics &  Russian Mennonites  and live their own cultures on other worlds or they may well be missionary explorers like David Livingstone. 

Private Wealthy Individuals . Yes there are historical examples of private individuals and then families  owning whole colonies, eg. William Penn, which is where PENN- Sylvania comes from. Imagine if there were whole worlds owned by Geoff Bezos , Richard Branson, Bill Gates or Elon Musk.