Science fiction writers have discussed the mining of space for many decades; writers like Arthur C. Clarke, Gene Roddenberry, Carl Sagan, Ben Bova, Isaac Asimov. It makes sense to mine asteroids, other planets and even our moon. Many asteroids are made of solid material, pure elements all the way through. Imagine catching an asteroid of aluminum, iron, titanium; a giant chuck of steel? Imagine mining the lunar moon dust and making some of the best flexible concrete money could buy?

Think of capturing a Comet made of pure water ice and gently placing it on the moon in reservoirs or craters lined with some sort of plastic like a giant tub or filling up underground aquifers for wells to use later? It seems everything we work so hard to dig out of the Earth at great expense is available in its purest form just floating around our solar system until it collides or hits something. So then it does make sense to collect it, mine it and use it to serve our needs.

http://weboflife.nasa.gov/

In 2006 we will see new simplified approaches to the mining of the Lunar surface and designs of easy up systems which will be pre-fab units assembled by robotic self-assembly techniques. These mining units will be launched and landed on the moon and immediately start working, converting moon material in to gases, for space propulsion and separating out oxygen for humans to arrive. NASA will practice on Earth landing these systems in a remote place on Earth as a test, by parachuting the systems in and testing their ability to work autonomously with some telematic presence via satellite. Think on this in 2006.