Armadyne

While the 92 billion man hours of effort is a vast over-estimate for any system based on self-replicating technologies, and while the frontier has always been forged by the less fortunate in the center, the vision of Elysium is an achievable one - for all mankind, every single one of us.

http://www.armadyne.net/

With house prices of $250 million, with no recurring charges, consider that according to Credit Suisse, there are 82,500 people with $500 million cash in the bank or more. There are over 200,000 who could afford these prices on Earth *today*. At 8,000 people per Elysium habitat and 200,000 buyers there is room for 25 such rings at $92 billion each!

Of course, with increased demand there are economies of scale and learning curve effects. As prices come down, the way computer prices came down from 1970s through 2010s, or automobile prices came down from 1920s through 1960s, we can expect numbers to grow. There are 29.5 million people with $1 million cash in the bank or more, according to Credit Suisse. So, as unit prices drop, total volume increases.

0-24 -- $92 B each -- $2,300 B -- 200,000 families $250 M
25-99 -- $46 B each -- $3,450 B -- 800,000 families $125 M
100-400 -- $23 B each -- $6,900 B -- 3,200,000 families $62 M