Why We Will Never, Ever, Mine The Asteroid Belt

Sci-Fi is a totally unreliable guide to reality

Image credit: Smithsonian

Lately Medium has been presenting me with fanboy articles all breathlessly proclaiming that we’re about to launch off into space to mine the asteroid belt. The supposed rationale is that we’re running out of minerals here on Earth so logically (as per the Monty Python definition of the word, at least) we…