Fiction loves to talk about mining asteroids as the way to solve the Earth’s increasing resource problems, and billionaires seem to like the idea, but how realistic is asteroid mining? What complexity is involved in choosing an asteroid? How do you survey the surface? Just how hard would it be to develop a mining rig to operate in microgravity? And what would you even be mining for? These are all questions that we’ll get into, while keeping the conversation accessible for a general audience.