I have long said that we need to go mine the astroid belt that is between Mars and Jupiter. Plus mine any that head towards the earth. There are a lot of resources out there on those frozen rocks that we can use to build things. This will also help to reach for the Stars and expand out horizons so we are not stuck on this rock.
Yes, this is the first step to taking us much further and I'm all for it. Not only could this help reduce our shortages of some key minerals, it could teach us about the early universe. That sounds like a win, win scenario to me.