Lake on Titan?

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by Sandman
The number of space launches required to sustain asteroid mining is environmentally damaging as well, though.

Not necessarily. Don't use reusable shuttles to ferry the material to earth; just drop it in containers manufactured in space.

[Mordoch]

Originally posted by Sandman
Why would you mine the Kuiper Belt or Oort Cloud, though? If you're after rare elements, the Asteroid Belt is nearer. Creating a fuelling station on Titan would probably involve much more expense that the fuel savings it would allow, anyway.

Not that I'm convinced that asteroid mining is economically viable. It's a common feature in sci-fi novels, but not a convincing one, IMO.

Its possible the Kuiper Belt or Oort Cloud have elements that the other astroids don't have in significant quantities.

As far as the fueling station goes, keep in mind that it could potentially be dual use and refuel Nasa space probes along with commercial mining spacecraft.

I never said this would happen for sure, I just brought it up as a possibility. We really can't say for sure until we get more info, a space elevator on top of everything else I mentioned could also dramatically bring down the costs of astroid mining and make it commercially potentially profitable. A space elevator along with a refueling station of Titan means a spacecraft has to dedicate far less of its volume to fuel among other things.