Talk-Polywell.org

http://www.tauzero.aero/index.html#

Anyone heard of these guys? Have they had enough time yet to get anything done?

I had a similar idea for a story, but it was a much more agressive organization than these guys look like, and more willing to work on small stuff like lunar bases than Tau Zero seems, though it doesn't look like they've really gotten far enough as an organization to tell.

As I understand it, it includes guys like Mark Millis, who ran NASA's "breakthrough propulsion physics" department for a few years when it existed (IIRC late 90s to early 2000s). I believe it also includes some sci-fi writers. They are more in the phase of "let's get people to think about stuff, and do basic research into unknown physics" than "let's go build a lunar base" right now.

There have been various privately funded groups that wanted to do stuff like send remote-control rovers to the moon or do terraforming experiments in the desert as the first step towards orbiting space colonies or moon landings, but none of it has ever really panned out. Lunacorp and the Mars Society seem to come to mind... the Mars society is still going, but I doubt anyone expects to actually get to Mars for at least a couple of decades.

Tau Zero's news website is:

http://www.centauri-dreams.org/

This is about the only space-related website that I regularly look at. I occasionally post there.