Digest Number 61

Asteroid mining only make economic sense with anything ressmbling current
technology if you keep human beings out of the cost loop as much as
possible: use robotic systems to mine & process in situ; & only bring the
human operators on board at the final product collection & transfer stage...
the situation is different with Lunar mines, of course; since it's easier
for people to live & work on the Moon & there are good scientific reasons
for doing so as well.

Using automated mining technology to create asteroid colonies inside rocky
asteroids is a different kettle of economic fish, of course; & my
preliminary numbers seem to suggest that this approach makes more sense in
the long term than attempting to construction conventionally on Earth &
transferring the technology to a deep space location.

All the best,
Robert Clements