Possible, yes. Whether it would be desirable is an interesting discussion.

Having said that, I'm with you. 'Arms Races' and War often support great technological leaps that ultimately benefit humanity (think plane engines or superglue) - wouldn't it be nice to see a space colony race where nations and corporations invest in new technology to support life on the moon, on Mars, and ultimately here on Earth, without the motivation to kill people first.

Colonizing the moon and mars would lead to speciation because of the effects of reduced gravity, I would imagine. That said, lunar and martian babes will likely be hot if they stay in shape. Think about the effects of low/no gravity, and no sunlight on aging--35 year olds will probably look 20.

At some point, there will definitely be an us/them feeling as the culture and needs of the societies diverge.

I personally think it will be a while before it happens unless the government allows private companies to do it. If they for example make it that any planet you colonize is basically owned by your corporation you'll see a flood of space exploration to get a piece of the pie. Sure can set something like the Alaska agreement, corporation owns the planet for 200 years and in the end the government has the option to buy it for a trillion dollars.

But right now the government is slow because of burecracy and no rush...the second Russians stopped the space race we stopped it and corporations can't do it because there aren't any rules out there regarding space claims and they don't want to invest the money into building a colony only to have the government come in and say sorry but we own it.

As much as I hope what you say is true, many government have other priorities then space exploration.

Unless they find something very valuable (gold, diamonds) I doubt the speed of space exploration will increase and even then, the cost of exploitation would be so high...

In my lifetime, I hope they build a large telescope on the moon and that we can go back till the big bang... They would be enough for me :)

In _The Case for Mars_ Robert Zubrin suggests that the colonization of Mars will have an affect analogous to the colonization of the Americas in the 1700's. Mars Colonization will open up myriad startup opportunities over many decades, if not centuries.