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> Build what? This is similar to point 1. To get any resources there we still have to send them from earth.

There are a number of very smart people who believe that the next big thing is industry in space with materials not from earth.

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Okay, I can see this. I know that a fair number of resources are extraordinarily rare on earth but space bodies are often almost exclusively made of - iridium for example). My knowledge beyond that is limited, I don't know how much those resources are worth, or if there are future uses for them we haven't discovered because of current cost barriers due to rarity.

I'd say though, lets pretend that an entire "flight" to intercept an comet/asteroid/material-rich-spacebody (Sorry I don't know the technical terms here) could be reduced to 100million USD. That material would have to be worth that 100million USD, not to mention all of the R/D.

Again personally I want humans to one day achieve it just for the heck of it - why not? But others are money driven and I'm not sure it makes actual financial sense (in terms of money making)

If you need that material to be in space, for use in space, remember competing materials (from Earth) need to pay a large get-it-out-of-the-gravity-well tax. I think something currently in the order of $1k per kg.

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