Telerobotic development is the heart of the Avalon concept of lunar and planetary settlement and it is premised on the simple issue of economics. As we’ve discussed many times, traditional colonial economic models do not, in the near term, work in space because the extreme costs of transportation make export for profit impractical. To date, the preliminary exploration of space has been rationalized on the premise of science and national prestige and paid for predominantly by public money. This is simply not a sustainable source of support at the scale and length of time true colonization demands. Even the largest superpower nations have proven hopelessly inconsistent in their support of their space programs and barely manage to sustain the most rudimentary exploration programs. We may marv