Go Out Young People
Recently Pres. Trump signed an Executive Order "Encouraging International Support for the Recovery and Use of Space Resources". This looks innoculous by itself but I believe it is a new Manifest Destiny proclamation. Humans have managed to forcibly expunge the Isolation Memorandum Treaty and now the Galaxy is open for our exploration. Ostensibly this EO is a new legal framework for US individuals and corporations (legal fictional persons) to enter into relations and contracts with extraterestrial beings, companies, and governments for new human settlements on planets and in space. I assume that the contracts would be in the jurisdiction of the US courts, decided under US laws, and enforced by the US Space Force. It is much like England sending out the Hudson Bay Company to explore and conduct business in the New World (North America). Presumably we could start our own unafilliated private space colonies but they would not be protected by the US Space Force.