Ask HN: What would we do, if we figured out asteroid mining
I'm curious, what would y'all think are the things that could be made possible if humanity figured out a scalable way to do asteroid mining.
After that, there are a number of factors that would impact what we'd do with mined materials:
1. In order to mine asteroids in a worthwhile way, we'd likely need to invent autonomous technologies to do so, otherwise we're likely not going to be able to do so effectively/efficiently. That will include the ability to autonomously build autonomous mining/refining/manufacturing facilities.
1a. If we're able to do that, we'll then have the technologies available to efficiently build space-based and planet-based habitats and manufacturing facilities.
2. Assuming we're able to accomplish (1), the obvious route would be to build more mining/refining/manufacturing facilities. This would allow us to create a space-based industrial base. However, it's not clear if such a base can provide materials and finished goods for those (pretty much all of us) living in a gravity well.
3. As such, I think the greatest benefit from learning how to mine asteroids will be in applying the autonomous technologies required on the Earth.