Maybe no TL8 world would (or could) fund a habitat. HOWEVER ...
In many systems, asteroids exist. This makes the job of getting
the material much easier. Orders of magnitude cheaper. Little
gravity well to contend with.
On many systems, the habiats *already* exist. They are just
dark, cold, and silent (or maybe not?) After all, _advanced_
civilizaitons put them up there, and barring further catastrophe,
are re-colonizable. It will always be cheaper to (well, for
many thousands of years anyway) renovate than to rebuild. This
goes for things like lunar colonies too.
The "new" society need only be interplanetary, not inter-
stellar, to make this work. And, for any society digging
itself out of a near-grave caused by overspecialization in
a single technology, re-establishing colonies and habitats
would be a priority, if only for military purposes.
I can see lots of room for adventures here.
- --
Richard Johnson [email removed]
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?