By-Pass the Moon?

"Combs, Mike" wrote:

"I'm willing to bet people are going to be involved in this process. I don't see encouraging signs that AI will enable a completely automated mining facility in any foreseeable future, and, unlike Luna, this will be too far out to permit teleoperation from Earth. So I think we're talking crews, and of necessity duty tours lasting several years minimum. That means we must maintain crew health, and the best method we know for ensuring that is rotating structures. If we're already doing that for the crew, then it's little extra engineering to also do it for some or nearly all of the industrial processes."

Local human presence with long duty stints will occur after there are enough building materials in earth orbit to more economically construct the larger structures for crews.

I was thinking asteroid minign would take the path of
1. Probe collecting surface samples for anlaysis,
2. Manned mission collecting samples
3. Mining for resource extraction
Getting to item 2 may take less than 10 years. The first industrial mining might occur 10 years after that. In two decades robotic technology would be further along than today. We can agree that AI isn't likely to happen any time soon. However, industrial processing doesn't require strong AI or anything close. It needs to handle typical operation and basic decision making. Detailed instructions could be transmitted, if needed for usualy events. (Time being a little less crucial without a crew involved.)

Since early mining projects would be small, maintenance work would be performed by a few mobile articulated robotic hands and spare parts. Future missions could deliver more spare parts and consumables or expand the capabilities of the facility.

If there is modular expansion, several processing capabilities might be installed before humans need to be involved locally (at the asteroid itself).

Wouldn't sending machines before us to mine, prep and ship materials require fewer breakthroughs than what is needed for humans to locally support the mining itself.

Another thought: The human mining effort would require lots of mass in space that had to already be mined from somewhere.