> Sending materials to Earth will cost as much as sending them into space, as the materials must land safely and be recovered as efficiently as possible. that'

> Sending materials to Earth will cost as much as sending them into space, as the materials must land safely and be recovered as efficiently as possible. that's not true because the journey from space to earth has an aerobrake option, but the journey up requires a rocket with a certain amount of energy per kg you want to send. In a large scale operation I think you could send stuff down relatively cheaply. A lot of effort would go into making a really mass-efficient reentry vehicle. Another thing that would probably end up happening is a reentry bolo - a spinning tether that would subtract a huge amount of velocity from things going down.