If interstellar Colonies become possible, who goes first?

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

There's no settlement colony in Antarctica now for a reason.

Yes. There's no practical way to make it self-supporting, so that the population can grow without commensurate increases in the amount of supplies you have to ship there.

For an interstellar colony, that depends on a whole lot of things that can't be known until you look at the site, and try some experiments. You can presumably live in space by similar means to how it's done in Sol system, but does that cut down your need for supplies enough to make it practical? If there's an ecosystem, can we actually add our preferred food sources to it and have them be productive without collapsing it? Will humans be able to live in that ecosystem without dying of allergies?