Talking about Mars is fun and cool and all. But Mars is not the next major step. If anything, it's just a convenient gravity well to place orbital stations, and maybe mine from time to time (mostly atmospherically). To the Belt! That is where humanity will develop the skills, technology, and adaptation that will drive us forward as a system wide species (potentially beyond). As with many short episodes, we do have a long-form multi-episode exploration coming up, but this material is too much fun not to give you an early taste! Sorry, Elon. That is not the way.

HALLUCINATION CHECK: (More of a correction) New 2026 estimates greatly increase the reserves of most of the material mentioned in this episode. The newer report suggests that supply bottlenecks will cause scarcity, but not fully deplete in the near term. This changes the stakes ...