[JRandomFreeper]

Platinum is merely a by-product. The tons of volatiles is where the value is, because water produced from an asteroid doesn't have the launch overhead that everything we carry up now does. Right now water costs about $10K/lb to send up.

/johnny

[Strategerist]

As a resource for further scientific exploration of the outer solar system, asteroids are fine.

But nobody should kid themselves that they’re going to make money off asteroids in and of themselves - there’s no magical unobtanium like dilithium or naquada we’re going to get from them, and it’s always going to be cheaper to just go deeper on Earth, process less-rich Earth ore, etc.