Asteroids might end up being a very profitable business for a private company. One asteroid in particular, in a near Earth orbit, about 70 times further from Earth than the Moon, is called 433 Eros. It is about 34km x 11 km x 11km, yet is believed to have more rare metals than the entire crust of the Earth.
On Earth, for example, platinum group metals are so rare that mined ores contain about 2 parts per million of platinum. Were a probe to land on 433 Eros, mine it somewhat, and concentrate its platinum, other platinum group metals, gold, and other valuable elements to just a five percent of the mass of the ore, it could be worth several million dollars.
If it had a nuclear furnace on board, so could melt the rock and produce just a big ball of mixed metal, it could even use the spinning momentum of the asteroid to hurl the ball in the general direction of Earth, for space recovery.
“Asteroids might end up being a very profitable business for a private company.”
Except the UN Treaty On Space specificaly forbids any private space ventures for profit like mining.
Mining astroids in the Treaty is only permitted for governments, and only for the benefit of all countries.