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I think there’s a bit of tail wagging the dog involved, in a good way. You are correct, mining asteroids would be necessary for colonizing Mars. But mining ast

I think there’s a bit of tail wagging the dog involved, in a good way. You are correct, mining asteroids would be necessary for colonizing Mars. But mining asteroids would also bring Earth much closer to post-scarcity (maybe even as necessary!). So if building a private beach on Mars for Musk and Richard Branson and Taylor Swift is what it takes to get an asteroid mining economy rolling, then cool, that's a plan…

Nokinside 9y ago
As others have pointed out, asteroid mining does very little to Earth. In a large scale it's only for use in space. Most rare-earth minerals are not really that rare. Mining them on earth will be more cost effective. If we need larger quantities than can be found on surface deep sea mining is still more cost effective than asteroid mining.