If civilization ever expands off-surface in a major way, then there may be strong economic incentives to use material from the asteroid belt. Humans are explora

If civilization ever expands off-surface in a major way, then there may be strong economic incentives to use material from the asteroid belt. Humans are exploratory and expansionary creatures at our core, so barring catastrophe it is only a matter of time. Once it is feasible, people will do it. For a simple initial analysis, we can look at the energy requirements to move from the surface to LEO vs LEO to the asteroid belt. The delta-v needed to get from the Earth’s surface to LEO is at least 9.4 km/s [1]. Meanwhile, there are about 4,000 known main-belt asteroids reachable from LEO with a delta-v budget of 8 km/s or less [2]. Obviously, that isn’t the only factor, but it is one of the most fundamental factors. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low_Earth_orbit https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low_Earth_orbit [2] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0094576517311220 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S00945...