Like Earth, planetary bodies such as the Moon, Mars, asteroids, and comets contain substantial deposits of valuable resources. This has caught the attention of both researchers and industry, with hopes of one day mining them to support a space economy. But setting up any kind of off-Earth mining industry will be no small feat. Let’s look at what we’re up against. In-situ resource utilization: When you think of off-Earth mining, you might imagine extracting materials from various bodies in space and bringing them back to Earth. But this is unlikely to be the first commercially viable example. If we wanted to establish ... (full story)