  To-date, all human economic activity has depended on the resources of a
single planet, and it has long been recognized that developments in space
exploration could in principle open our closed planetary economy to external
resources of energy and raw materials. Recently, there has been renewed
interest in these possibilities, with several private companies established
with the stated aim of exploiting extraterrestrial resources. Space science and
exploration are among the potential beneficiaries of space resources because
their use may permit the construction and operation of scientific facilities in
space that will be unaffordable if all the required material and energy
resources have to be lifted out of Earth's gravity. Examples may include the
next generation of large space telescopes, sample return missions to the outer
Solar System, and human research stations on the Moon and Mars. These potential
scientific benefits of extraterrestrial resource utilisation were the topic of
a Royal Astronomical Society specialist discussion meeting held on 8 April 2016
and summarised here.
