So, I heard recently that private industries are looking to mine asteroids for metals and stuff that are extremely rare on earth. They claim that within a few more years it will be possible. They also believe that they will be able to obtain fuel from these asteroids as well. I hate to be a debbie downer, but I cant say that this sounds very practical to me. Nice thing about asteroids is that their closer than mars and stuff. But im pretty sure anyone taking up the job as an asteroid miner is going to be having a hard life. Probably tons of health consequences, along with deteriorating muscle and bone mass. Will it even all be worth the fuel and the resources on these asteroids? Its pretty much like the oil deep in the earth. Costs more to drill it up than the fuel itself is worth.
I'm sure I read somewhere recently that scientists determine it quite impossible to land a person on Mars anytime in the near future (20+ years). We aren't going to be mining a distant asteroid anytime either.
They need to go full SCI-FI and not just mine the asteroids, but capture them into a geo-synchronous orbit around earth. If you give them enough spin, you can hollow it out and create a habitat in space. Or it might be my reading list is intruding into my brainwaves again.
