Mining the Sky: Untold Riches from the Asteroids, Comets, and Planets
by John S. Lewis, 1997

This book provides a fascinating account of the material wealth of our solar system. From mining asteroids for metals to searching for water for rocket propellants to pulling helium-3 from the outer planets for fusion material, there are profitable opportunities for mining the sky. Relying upon launched material from Earth will always limit our ability to explore and colonize outer space, as the launch costs are prohibitive and lead to limiting the weight of payloads. To continue manned exploration past the moon, we will need to start pulling raw materials from other rocks in the solar system with smaller costs. The book goes through the geology of asteroids, moons, comets, and planets and describes the chemistry necessary to profitably extract valuable materials. Very interesting; I found myself reading many passages out loud to Maria. Follow-up books by Lewis appear to be “Rain of Iron and Ice” and “Asteroid Mining 101”.