It reminds me about a book (Kevin Kelly?) that discussed technology transfer - it turns out that the process isn't straightforward at all, even if you already own the technology. Any existing technology is a chain of interdependence, transferring it requires one to rebootstrap everything from scratch. It has great practical implications (not only limited to space colony), one example is developing an industrial society in a developing country - even with full technological resources from developed nations, is it possible to skip the catastrophic heavy pollution from the crude industry that historically plagued the developed world, and instead, start directly at a more modern industry system that produces less pollution? The answer is unclear, some can be avoided, but others, possibly not.