We'll mine the other planets later.
Plenty of stuff in the asteroid belt too.
Saw this in Central Idaho 20 years ago:
EARTH FIRST! Then we’ll log the rest of the planets later!
Thank you...I was taking this entirely too seriously (the detachment from reality of these people) and your post made me grin!
MUGA....Make the Universe Great Again.
Regarding “mining” the water from Saturn's rings.
The rings lose water to Saturn all the time naturally - like rain. At the rate of 4,400 pounds per second. At that rate it will be gone in 300 million years anyway.
What I suggest is put a big catch basin below the rings. England has an average water usage of about 55 gallons a day per person. (Baths, washing, etc. - the USA is double that). But we can get by on 55 if we have to I bet.
So by catching the rain from Saturn, that would provide enough water for about 85,000 people. Of course it isn't like we would ship it back to earth, it would be for people living in space (and near Saturn). By that time I'm guess we could figure out good recycling of grey water (already do?) - so maybe a person could get by on 5.5 gallons of water a day for drinking, cooking, etc. So that would support 850,000 people! (I think the actual number of necessary drinking water is more like 1 gallon of day, so I'm being generous.)