There are basically six places in the solar system with the necessary raw materials to industrialize space and terraform the planets:
Mercury – whose metallic body can be hollowed out like an ant hill to forge the metal needed to create the thousands of solar power satellites that can make up a Dyson Swarm and provide the energy needed to transform humanity into a Kardashev 2 civilization.
Venus – whose massive CO2 atmosphere can be mined by floating cities to create enough carbon fiber (stronger than steel) needed to build thousands of space craft, industrial facilities, O'Neal cylinders and Bishop Rings to create thousands of orbital habitats.
Luna MAY have economical metal deposits.
https://www.space.com/moon-metal-mystery-clue-in-craters.html
"There's more metal on the moon than we thought. NASA's prolific Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) found rich evidence of iron and titanium oxides under the surface of the moon, which may show a close connection with Earth's early history."
NASA believes that rare earths (KREEP – potassium, rare earth elements and Phosphorus) MAY be economically mined. What we need to do is send a dozen cheep prospector rovers to Luna and have them travel around the surface performing mineral surveys and deep drilling samples just to be sure.
Phobos is far more valuable than Mars as a "Panama Canal" for interplanetary space travel.
http://hopsblog-hop.blogspot.com/2015/06/phobos-panama-canal-of-inner-solar.html
Given its low gravity a simple space elevator made of ordinary steel can be built from Phobos to the surface of Mars with an extension of its tether to allow for cheap planetary orbital boosts to the outer solar system. (Luna can also have a space elevator made of ordinary steel.)
Mars itself is essentially an economically worthless ball of poisonous irradiated dust.
Dwarf planet Ceres – mined for water ice for life, breathing and fuel.
Psyche the second largest asteroid – essentially a big ball of iron that could provide thousands of years of steel production.
Together, Ceres and Psyche make up 40% of the mass of the asteroid belt. All other asteroids are incidental and/or sources of rare earths, etc.
Triton – whose atmosphere is a source of nitrogen for all artificial atmospheres and terraforming.
Titan's value lies in its natural heat sink which would allow for the construction of massive computer systems on its surface:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdpRxGjtCo0
Also mine Saturn's rings for all the ice water you could ever need.
In fact, Saturn might be better for colonization then Jupiter with its massive magnetic fields that could fry a human without heavy shielding.
So all the placed that SF wants us to go (Luna, Mars, Jupiter) aren't very valuable.
After mining and industrialization has begun in earnest (mostly performed by robots and drones – no human need apply) we can begin colonizing.
Start with lava tubes on Luna and Mars, mining tunnels on Mercury and Ceres, floating bases in the upper atmosphere of Venus. Then expand to para-terraforming followed by true terraforming.
In a thousand years or so you have a K2 level civilization powered by a Dyson Swarm with industry stretching from Mercury to the Jovian moons and humans living on a half dozen terraformed worlds, thousands of rotating space habitats and mini-artificial worlds like Bishop Rings.
After that? Ad Astra!
submitted by /u/Celtiberian2023
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