Extraplanetary Mining

“The ships hovered above the surface waiting to land. In the same way that centuries before, European Imperial powers had carved up the African continent into zones of interest, so the asteroid belt and lunar territories had been divided into corporate plots, each one marked by a different colour. As had been predicted by writers of science fiction, it was inevitable that the search for precious mineral resources would eventually expand the landscape for capital accumulation from a planetary affair into a cosmic enterprise.”