You may ask yourself why future humans are going to go the long way out to the inner asteroid belt for gathering ressources when they are already able to settle the moon and the mars.
The reason for that is pretty simple. If you gather ressources on earth you have to use a lot of energy to bring that ressources away from the planet because of the heavy gravitational force. Actually that was the main reason why smart Mining Coporations were heading out to the asteroid belt.
Once in Space it is more easy to transport something when there is no gravitational force to fight against. Choosing smaller asteroidsfor building mining colonies is obvious because they just do not have any significant gravitation. Weight of the Freight does matter very less and uses a fraction of the energy costs of transporting something from the earth to the orbit.
The only drawback is the distance to the asteroid belt - but mining companies have large fleets of transportation vessels, providing a steady stream - so travelling 1 or 2 years with a transporter is doable and there where always brave skippers who want to have some space fun, enjoying the silence in space or just need the bucks.
Asteroid Mining is by far the most profitable business in the Age of Asteroids and many people are willed or even desperate to be part of the socalled space-folk. They proudly name themselves Space-Miners, Belt-Billies or Space Boys. Many of them just feel like they the staff of oil rigs in the 21st century but they have a true adventure.
Even for planet earth and the moon laboratories those ressources gathered in the asteroid belt are far mor cheaper to get than getting them from earth directly - that also has lead to a big improvement in environmental thinking. Earth was considered the green spot of System Sol and more and more people started to appreciate that without having to give up any luxuries. They now just come from somewhere else.
It is the pure Age of Asteroids! The first big step of mankind to outer space!
