## 1 Introduction
Considering the high risk of mission failure, this could be unacceptable to most investors. There are NEOs (Near Earth Objects)--asteroids that are closer to the Earth, but they still suffer from the same technical problems as for more distant asteroids. Until humanity invents faster space drives, the exploitation of asteroids on an industrial scale will not be possible. Work is currently underway on nuclear drives [9; 10] and even concepts of thermonuclear drives [11]. In the case of Mars, the economic calculus of exploiting its raw materials may be more favorable and its considerable distance from Earth would not have to be an obstacle if it could be colonized. In such a case, many mining operations would be carried out by people and devices would not have to have such a high degree of autonomy as in the case of asteroids. Mars' gravity would enable the use of mining solutions known from Earth--of course improved and adapted to local environmental conditions. Raw materials could be processed locally into high-margin, high-tech products and shipped to Earth. However, to make this possible, it is first necessary to colonize Mars, which will be a big logistical and technical challenge and will require the involvement of significant financial resources. [PERSON] is conducting R&D work aimed at developing a Starship space vehicle that will enable the colonization of Mars. Starship is still being tested and has not yet reached Low Earth Orbit (LEO) at the time of writing this article. Additionally, the problem that will need to be solved is refueling in orbit so that it can make further interplanetary journeys--it is necessary to develop a logistics system here. It is worth adding that the colonization of Mars could also facilitate the exploitation of raw materials in the asteroid belt, which are closer to Mars than to Earth, and starting from Mars requires less energy than from Earth. However, this is still too distant a perspective to be considered in the next decade. There are also many meteorite craters on Mars, some of which may be a source of raw materials. Over 384,000 craters over 1 km in diameter have been identified on Mars [12]. When a meteorite impacts, some of its material is thrown into space, but some remains at the point of impact. If the meteorite was metallic, there may be metallic deposits where it fell. The famous Sudbury metal deposit in Canada (Sudbury Basin) was formed 1.8 billion years ago as a result of the fall of a meteorite with a diameter of 10-15 km. The Moon is a much more convenient place to conduct the first mining operations in space than asteroids or Mars. The flight time to the Moon takes about three days [13], which means that you can relatively quickly obtain feedback from failed space missions and send improved versions of the devices. Similarly, raw materials obtained on the Moon can be brought back much faster. The delay time of the Earth-Moon signal (propagation time to the Moon and back) ranges from 2.4 to 2.7 s, with an average of 2.56 s (the average distance from Earth to the Moon is 384,400 km), which allows you to control many devices on the lunar surface from Earth without leaving your home [14; 15]. The lunar environment is also well known to us, we have been there, there is a lot of data from past space missions [16], and the future presence of people on the Moon in connection with the Artemis program gives in some locations a chance for astronauts to intervene if any problems with the equipment occur. The gravity on the Moon is 1/6 of the gravity on Earth, but it is sufficient to use many mining solutions known from Earth, which require gravity to operate. All this radically shortens the time horizon for return on investment and radically reduces investment risk, which is why space mining will probably start on the Moon.