Reply #109: Did you say "natural resources," TK421 ??????????? [View All]

[breadandwine]

As the video mentioned (I'm still waiting for evidence the critics on this thread actually saw it....), Mars, unlike the Moon, has a complex geological history that supported concentration of minerals into ores.

Of course, Mars is packed with iron.

But as Zubrin has pointed out, near Mars are asteroids with precious metals such as platinum. Going to Mars has benefit because of a "triangle trade" that would develop in the same way that trading ships traveled from Europe to mainland colonial America in part because of the incentive of stopping off in the Caribbean before heading back. The Caribbean, with its hot climate, offered precious sugar and spices. Spices had huge value in a small volume. Same with precious metals on the asteroids. Zubrin has worked out the economics of all this in concert with the cost of getting there and everything. The economics works for this.