Just ask tiny Luxembourg, which recently decided to use a very large chunk of its money--well into nine figures, in fact--to invest in the future of asteroid mining.
We do not have an infinite Earth, folks. We are, far more quickly than we realize, not only reaching peak oil, but in fact peak everything. Well, a lot of things, anyway. And yet, many of the things we're running out of on this planet can be found elsewhere. Specifically, beyond the planet. In space.
For a long time, we have faced the future only through the medium of science fiction. Perhaps that's because the present has become so frightening that the only vision of the future people can conjure is one that's even worse than the present. But it doesn't have to be that way. The best of what can be found in science fiction--which includes asteroid mining, by the way--has almost always made it into science fact. Science fiction has, in fact, often served as a guidepost to some of the greatest developments in human history.
So don't bet against Luxembourg's bet on mining in space. We will need to find new sources for natural resources soon. If they are extraterrestrial sources, so be it. And human ingenuity has thus far always found a way to get what it needs.
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