The importance of exploring the asteroid belt.
Following life's innate tendency to expand into every available space, technological civilizations will inevitably colonize the entire galaxy establishing space habitats around all its well-behaved stars. The most reasonable place in our solar system to test this possibility is the asteroid belt, which is an ideal source of raw materials for space colonies.
Papagiannis
M D
MD
Department of Astronomy, Boston University, MA 02215, USA.
D055580:Astronomical Phenomena; D001256:Astronomy; D018559:Exobiology / Q000639:trends*; D005118:Extraterrestrial Environment; D019369:Life; D018543:Minor Planets; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D016082:Solar System; D013026:Space Flight / Q000639:trends*