The High Frontier is the New World without the natives.
There are endless resources, land, and energy once you escape Earth’s gravity.
The Vikings, among others, discovered the Americas, but lacked the ships, navigation instruments, and economic incentive to colonize the new lands.
Columbus came along with better technology. Plus, the Spanish discovered rich empires to conquer.
Outer space will follow a similar path. When we have cheap, reliable access to space, we will mine and colonize the new lands.
Ad Astra
Sci-Fi paperback novels since the dawn of time have covered this subject.
“When we have cheap, reliable access to space...”
I’m convinced that our deep black project boys have already perfected propulsion systems that can get you to Mars within hours. Maybe even minutes.