superrific
Legend of ZZL
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Yes, but people can get to the moon in less than 3-5 years. Before we can even think about mining asteroids, we have to invent automated mining rigs for use in space -- and the best place to do that would be on the moon, not on the asteroid belt 3 years away.Asteroid belt would have higher quality ore that was easier to mine since the heavy blasting has been done. Takes less fuel coming back than it does from the moon because of the gravity well.
I don't know what they are looking for on the moon, but we wouldn't be bringing back iron. I suspect what would be retrieved would be ore with a very high value density. Not diamonds, but same idea -- you can pack a lot of $$ worth of diamonds into a small rocket blasting off.