Asteroid Mining, the first real step towards Space Exploration, became economically viable in 2045, when the cost of most resources on earth, close to being completely expired, spiralled out of control.

Copper started to be unavailable in 2045, silver and gold in 2048, nickel in 2040. At the same time the scarce fossil fuels were still required to power the common mining activities. This meant ordinary metals became luxury items.

Earth was, simply put, expiring.

Tensions between China and the United States grew worryingly, as the two countries tried to secure control over the few territories still rich in resources.
Europe was one of the first powers to be in dire straits and, as it happens, the first one forced to search for its own means of survival in Space Exploration.

The first telescopes aimed at finding ore in the Asteroid Belt had been put into orbit in 2013, more a scientific project than anything else.
A mission to study the feasibility of Asteroid Mining had been completed in the early 20s, funded by the unlikely partnership of Google executives Larry Page and Eric Schmidt and movie director James Cameron.
Considered an extravagant exercise by many, the mission proved that, however expensive, mining asteroids was in fact a possibility.

The first mining station, on the surface of Hygeia (the fourth biggest asteroid in the Belt, with its 500 kms in diameter) was finally built in 2058, a date widely regarded as the start of Human Race migration into Outer Space.

The European Mining Station (EMS) catered for 25 workers, had three surface crawlers and still relied heavily on food and supplies from earth.
Miners used to have 9 month-long shifts, after which they were sent back to Earth to avoid the various diseases linked to the absence of gravity.
The first Ring Station, built 12 years later and still orbiting around Hygeia, provided workers with an environment of artificial gravity where they could live between shifts, which in turn allowed more miners to join the facilities and a more intensive production.

The ensuing availability of automated machines, together with the wealth in resources, eventually made building structures in Space extremely easy and affordable. As a matter of fact much, much cheaper than building anything on Earth.

By 2065 a first depot was added to the complex. Two years later came the first ore processing unit, and after six years the first orbital greenhouse.
These were soon followed by a scientific lab, a fleet of new mining droids, an array of telescopes and a bigger water processing unit, plus the first meat production factory in the Solar System based on artificially generated animal muscles.

Soon the astronauts, who now spent long years away from Earth, started asking for leisure facilities, and eventually a cinema, a football field and a theatre were added to the complex.
The EMS, 40 years after its construction, housed nearly 320 miners, was almost completely self sufficient and sent about 45% of its ore need back to earth.

Four decades of mining had released a huge amount of dust around the mining facilities. The dust, kept together by the feeble gravitational field of the Asteroids Belt, was constantly lit up by the service lights of the many automated machines incessantly moving around, which gained the settlement the name of Red Cloud.

Red Cloud kept growing and growing throughout the 310 years it remained active, and after just 80 years since its foundation a vast part of its crew was born and had grown up entirely on it.
In 2075 one of the female engineers got pregnant, and since moving to Earth to complete her labour was considered too risky, the baby was delivered at the Station.

For the first time a Human Being was born outside their home planet, and from then on many others started considering this first human settlement in space as a viable place to live.
This event is considered by many historians as one of the most significant occurrences of the Colonization Era, and is still a major source of arguments for those who, in turn, regard the Foundation of EMS as the key factor in Space Exploration.

In the next chapter we will see how the troubled economy on Earth lead to the foundation of the Miners’ Guild, and began what is commonly known as The Grudge phase.
And all this simply to justify my need to practice on hard surfaces.
Here’s the process by the way.

by Paolo Puggioni