Giant Nasa spider robots could 3D print lunar base using microwaves (Wired UK)

I would love to see an X-prize offered for the first rover that could (on earth even) process structural materials out of a locally acquired raw material. Something that could walk across the lava field left behind by Kilauea and extrude beams or something. Even better would be something that could just drill/dig through dirt and extract/produce any structurally significant metal.

Drop a gizmo into sub-Saharan Africa and first one to a standing village "wins" the prize kind of thing. Bonus points if some of the materials are transparent to visible light.

Its what bothers me about the asteroid mining concepts too. I mean I get that you can drop something on an Asteroid, but we don't have any reason to believe you can build an autonomous mining rig, if we did these things would be driving around the depths of Zambia leaving little platinum and gold turds for their handlers to pick up.

We should worry about our own planet before invading others! But anyway that's interesting ;)