45 years in aerospace.
This will NEVER be cost effective.
When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarke%27s_three_laws
That is ridiculous, think about it.
Space is Complicated!
I think that asteroid mining is a threat to civilization. Consider how fragile is the asteroid belt. These space rocks are in precise orbits for millions of years. Before that it was literally a shooting gallery in here.
There were asteroids raining down on the earth surface. From the tunguska event to the Chicxulub impact. Wait till they start blasting gold out of these space rocks. Moving these objects out of their orbits, changing their mass. They run into each other and create a chain reaction that we wont be able to predict.
Everything else will perish in a tectonic cataclysm. What survives that will face a firestorm literally raining fire from space as the crust blasted out into the sky reenters all over the planet surface. Then comes a few million years long ice age.
It makes me sad because i really like the idea of mining asteroids for their resources. But the concern trolls that wring their hands about global warming would do better to be concerned about this really bad idea.
Never say never.
I could see a robotic spaceship going to the asteroid belt, finding a suitable metallic asteroid, and towing it to earth orbit using ion thrusters.
That old hackneyed meme only applies to dragging a small amount of stuff down a gravity well - stuff mined in space will be used to build stuff in space and be very cost effective.
Have to agree. The expense would make deep water oil and mineral extraction (the sea bottom is a largely unexplored treasure trove) seem like plugging a $1.00 tap into the ground and having oil and platinum gush out. And until we start building cities in Antarctica I have the same doubts about Mars ever becoming a real backup plan. That does NOT mean we shouldn’t explore for the sake of pure science and the expansion of human knowledge. But no one should expect to make a direct profit in the effort.