People who say “yes that’s nice, but isn’t it still super expensive to lift all that material into orbit?” should consider that space based resources alter that equation drastically.

First in space based, low cost sources of raw materials are near earth asteroids and asteroids that cross our orbital plane. Second is the moon and it shallow gravity well, much lower energy required to reach orbit from the surface of the moon than from the surface of the earth. Similarly, Mars has a much lower gravity than earth. Then we have the asteroid belt and outer planets and their moons.

I believe it is evident that once a basic level of resource extraction AND production are available ON orbit, it will be game over and vast fortunes will be made.

The question for anyone with an entrepreneurial bent well be; how to contribute?