Should stress that i'm >not< the Robert who put this article up....

Beyond that: this is an interesting summary of the industrial potential of the NEOs; although i have some doubts about the immediacy of Tom's conclusions. Consider 1986 DA, which appears to be pure metal & which is just out of the arbitrary 6kmps rendezvous from LEO class of 90 i mentioned yesterday. Cash in the bank, surely....

Well, maybe not. Having too much of an asset - any asset - destroys its value; & the technology necessary to mine these asteroids will almost certainly have the side effect of expanding the available resource base here on Earth (there are plenty of marginal resources which could become profitable if remote technology existed). It could provide a resource for in space construction; but even there is struggle to see how - with near term technology - building things in orbit will be cheaper than flying them ready made from the factories of Earth.

Primarily, i still view the NEOs as science & technology targets in the near term - with one possible exception: CHONy bodies don't just contain water; they contain all the consumables that life support systems need. Whether or not there was any value for using such bodies as gas stations for future missions (again, probably unlikely with near term technology) they >could< easily replace Progress flights in supplying air, water & other consumables to space environments; & there may just be enough of a market in the near term for such consumables to justify a low level of NEO exploitation.

Hard to tell, though.

Robert