I like Robert Forward’s free market vision of space as well.
There is something refreshing about reading about explorers getting paid big bucks for taking the big risks and looking for commercial viability.
Forward was a physicist and free marketeer. The space centric company he co founded exists today.
http://www.tethers.com/index.html
I’ve read Foward’s better known fiction (Dragon’s Egg, Starquake, Rocheworld) and enjoyed it very much.