Colonization of the asteroids

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Asteroid 243 Ida with its moon, Dactyl.

The asteroids or, more properly, the minor planets, have long been suggested as possible sites for human colonization. The idea is popular in science fiction.

Asteroid mining, a proposed industrial process in which asteroids are mined for valuable materials, esp. platinum group metals from metallic objects, may require a crew to remain at any target asteroid.

1 Advantages
2 Disadvantages
3 Asteroids of special interest
4 Asteroid colonies in science fiction
5 References
6 See also

[edit] Advantages

Space colonization

Mercury
Venus
Earth
- Moon
Mars

Asteroids

Ceres

Outer solar system

Jupiter
- Europa
Saturn
- Titan

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large number of possible sites, with over 300,000 asteroids identified to date
Isaac Asimov pointed out the advantage of building cities inside hollowed out asteroids since the interior area in cubic miles of all the asteroids put together is a lot more than the surface area of Earth (viewed as a series of cubes one mile by one mile resting on the surface of Earth) and thus a large population could be accommodated in the asteroid belt.
several different chemical composition classes, including iron and carbonaceous. The Trojan asteroids, in Jupiter's orbit may be primarily extinct comets.
some earth-crossing asteroids require less energy (delta-V) to reach from Earth than the Moon.
material mined from asteroids could be a basis for a trade economy

[edit] Disadvantages

Low gravity - Humans would have to adapt, or stations with artificial gravity would be needed.
Most asteroids are far from the Sun. The main asteroid belt is roughly 2 to 4 times further from the Sun than Earth. This means that the available solar energy (solar constant) is 4 to 16 times less.
Many asteroids may merely be loose agglomerations of dust and rocks, which may be very difficult to use.