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OK, first things first, exploration, I don't know if you know this, but for asteroids, its rather easy to find out their composition, some are almost 100% Iron/Nickle, others are much less, others rocky, others mostly carbon, etc. Unlike on Earth, where geologic processes and oxidization has hidden or made difficult the recovery of many elements, aluminum comes to mind, in space, precisely nothing has happened, these are not, to put it kindly, elements that are locked in complex chemical bonds, hell, some Asteroids are SHINY because of their metal content, to extract the actual elements from them to be useful to manufacture would be relatively easy compared to Earth based ways of mining. A few things to keep in mind, most of these objects in space are in free fall, micro gravity, You can literally drape a net on an asteroid, spin the asteroid slightly, to simulate SOME gravity, very gentle, let's say .1 gee, which would be, for a decent size asteroid, about 1 revolution every 2 hours. Anyways, drape a net over it, secure it to 4 primary points, then literally chip away the iron, nickle, whatever other element you want from the asteroid, and it would get gathered in the net. Then, when you are done, tie up the ends of the net, and transport the materials to wherever they are needed. This is a simplistic way of putting it, but you get the idea.
Another point, outside of the gravity wells of any Planetary or Lunar objects, transportation is CHEAP in space. OK, on Earth, to give an example, a trucker has to apply constant energy to get from point A to point B. The reason for this is really complex, but let's just say that gravity and friction are the biggest reasons for this. This isn't true in space, the freighter in my above example, the net carrier, would give off a SUDDEN burst of energy, a rocket blast, to, let's say for this example, enter a stable orbit around the Earth, all it has to do is provide enough acceleration to coast the rest of the way at the right velocity, there is NOTHING in space to slow it down, if the calculations are right, then it wouldn't need to apply any added energy to enter orbit, if the calculations are wrong, then a corrective burn is needed to get on the right course.
Even then, the cost for transportation ALONE is rather cheap, from one point in space to another. Now, there are exceptions, one, as you mentioned, are Earth to Moon and Moon to Earth transportation, and the reason is simple, you have to escape their gravity wells, and that takes a LOT of energy, hence the cost per kilogram in my previous post. Another cost factor is the human factor, transporting humans in space is expensive, no getting around that, you have life support systems, radiation shields, etc. to deal with. The point being that sending robotic craft to do these chores, initially, is MUCH cheaper, they require less energy, less maintenance, etc.
Also, to go back to my first example, the asteroid mining, I was NOT talking about sending Iron ore down to Earth to be used on here on the surface. That is actually rather stupid, we are NOT running out of Iron or any other metals on the surface of the planet as far as I'm aware of. No, I was talking about using resources that are ALREADY in micro gravity to build spacecraft and a space born industrial capacity. That is much cheaper than sending ALL the equipment needed for such endeavors from Earth to orbit, that is too expensive. Also, just another note, I don't know if you know this, but we wouldn't even have to send such robotic spacecraft that far away from Earth to begin with, just recently, we have found out that many asteroids are in a "resonance" orbit with the Earth, orbits around the Sun that "shadow" the Earth but aren't themselves locked to the Earth like the Moon is. In Astronomical terms, they get quite close, some even WITHIN the orbit of the Moon, getting between it and the Earth. Some are quite massive, and could be potentially dangerous in the future. However, they can also be quite useful as well, given their relatively stable orbits, and the predictability of space travel, we could, very slowly, but surely, nudge one or two of the several billion ton asteroids, some with high contents of Iron, as high as 90%, into stable orbits around the Earth, and then do with them what we want at our leisure, basically giving the Earth a couple more Moons.
In economical terms, think of it this way, for actual space development, to put it kindly, to keep things economical, you would HAVE to mine Asteroids if not the Moon. The reasons are as stated above, this is not a business with high profit margins, though Gold Asteroids(yes they exist) may be different. Also, I didn't even bother mentioning the FREE energy you get in space, at least from the Sun, unlike on Earth, solar power in space is the most economical form, build the panels and they will last for YEARS and provide megawatts, gigawatts of energy, depending on size. Hell, you can even use OTHER forms of solar energy for various processes. I do not want to get the wrong impression, these Asteroids most likely are NOT purely elemental, so some smelting would be required, but you already have an unlimited heat source for this process, energy is already there, the Sun, angling a few mirrors and a lens and you can have a smelter that will melt Iron, throw in some Chromium and/or other materials(Carbon), into the mix and you can produce several MILLION tons of high grade steel for use in anything you want, and it cost the total amount of getting the material there and building the smelter itself, no cost for the energy required.
Another thing I have to stress, most Asteroids formed in the Solar System because they FAILED to form a planet, so they do NOT have the layering that Earth does, with lighter materials on the surface and denser materials at the core. On an Asteroid, all those heavy elements that you usually have to dig down deep into the Earth to get, like Iron, Nickle, Copper, etc. are available for the picking on the SURFACE of the asteroid. It wouldn't even be called pit mining, except that is probably easier to control in a micro-gee environment, the walls would be useful to channel the material.
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