The science-fiction series The Expanse is set 200 years in the future: humans have established colonies on the Moon and Mars, and have begun colonising the asteroid belt.

There are compelling reasons why we might wish to colonise the asteroid belt, but the predominant one is mining. Unlike the Earth, where precious metals tend to be buried underground, there is an abundance of metals like gold and palladium on the surface of asteroids. But they could also be used as a scientific research outpost.

The Asteroid Belt orbits the Sun between Mars and Jupiter, and is thought to be the remains of a planet. While the Asteroid Belt is the main source of asteroids, asteroids can be found throughout the Solar System and come in three basic types; stony, carbonaceous and metallic. They range in size from hundreds of metres to the size of a small house.

You might also like:

Companies like Planetary Resources and Deep Space Industries are already investing in asteroid mining and they could begin extraction by 2025. However, creating a settlement on an asteroid is far more complicated than simply mining one.