In Space Mining and Manufacturing: Off-World Resources and Revolutionary Engineering, author Davide Sivolella makes a compelling case that launching frontend loaders and drilling platforms into space can play a major strategic role in the survival of civilization. The global economy runs on raw materials. Some of these resources, such as the metals used in electronics, are not renewable, lack good substitutes, and are difficult to recycle. Others require copious amounts of energy and water to separate and purify, generating waste heat, destroying habitats, and creating pollutants that take decades to degrade.