[Enrivaanonock]

Hey, I didn't pull that stuff out of my ass it was what I saw. There are minerals that we could get from asteroids, that isn't hard to believe. And a plus side, as I see it, is that all those mines we have on Earth now can be shut down, then teach those workers that want to how to mine in space, the Earth heals itself, areas for people to live open up, etc. But thats just me.

How about the other benefits of space travel, like say an extra-orbital solar power plant. There was something I saw, it was that crazy Japanese scientist with the big hair, about solar energy being beamed via radiowaves *like charging your phone wireless-ly*. So image these power plants orbiting out of Earth's true orbit but still synchronous with us to always be generating energy from direct orientation with the sun. Set up enough to power the planet and boom, no fossil fuels for power plants. *This wouldn't work because big oil/gas/etc. would lose money*