I have no doubt in my mind that if we ever explore or colonize Mars, utilization of local resources will certainly play a major role. And there is no fundamental scientific or engineering reason we couldn't do this. The same goes for bases on the Moon, the Belt, or the outer planets and the gas giant satellites. We simply can't colonize the Solar System if we have to bring every single thing we need with us.
But we shouldn't be premature and use pipe dreams about these technologies and economies simply to justify our enthusiasm to go there. For example, Europeans came to the New World and Asia looking for gold, but the real money was in growing dope (tobacco, tea, spices, sugar, chocolate). In other words, the real economic incentive that led to imperialism (and industrial scale slavery) wasn't essential commodities, it was addictive luxuries. A galleon full of tobacco could bring in a much higher price than one full of maize or potatoes. Likewise, the natural resources of deep space that will finance and enable our going there have still not been fully identified, or located, or the means of extracting them, conceived.
As an aside, at the depths where the Titanic lies, wouldn't extreme ocean pressures have crushed all the wine bottles, or at least, driven the corks in? The pressure outside those glass bottles far exceeds the 15 lbs/in^2 inside. Can you imagine investors raising million$ to salvage the wreck on the imagined value of the contents of the booze locker?
There may very well be items of great value or utility aboard the shipwreck, they might even be easily recovered; but the point is right now we have no idea what they might be.
Space/Science » in reply to No doubt . . .
Its not a question of impossibility.
