So, I googled for "self replicating habitats", and all I seemed to be able to come across were proposals for space-based systems and nano-systems. They all seemed to focus on the ability of a self-replicating system to make a large area inhabitable in a relatively short time, by which I mean several hundred years, without the need for constant human oversight. Looking at that kind of a timeline, one wonders how our technology and society will have changed by the time, if we will even last long enough to make use of what the machines accomplish. The other question that arrises is what will we do with so many machines once they have finished their work.
Those questions aside, the proposals I read repeatedly mentioned using the process of creating habitable space in other regions of space as a way to produce a vast quantity of raw materials in order to build other things. This seems to verify my idea of making habitats underground and mining minerals at the same time.
Here are some of the links I briefly looked over for the last class
http://lifeboat.com/ex/space.habitats- covers several different methods of launching into space, and has links to Robert Freidas.
http://www.orionsarm.com/whitepapers/vision.html- I did not read through the entirety of this paper, but it is interesting.
http://www.acceleratingfuture.com/michael/blog/?p=220 I also was not able to finish reading this paper.