Personally, I struggle to believe there'll be much resource exploitation in Space until we have a significant presence in Space - away from the gravity well of Earth.

ie - The Moon.

Once we have a significant presence, and colony (or hopefully colonies) on the Moon, regulation of Space will inevitably transfer away from nations on Earth that will no doubt be imposing unacceptable regulatory hurdles in all sorts of ways - to the low cost environment offered from the Moon - an independent Moon mind you.

Efficiency will drive that migration of Space based business away from Earth - the Moon will be the beneficiary initially.

It is close to Earth, close to the finance of Earth, but when in time it is not constrained by the regulatory limits imposed from Earth it will really take off. I tend to think this status quo will be maintained for up to a century, at least until there is significant development of colonies on the Asteroids and further out in the Solar System, and even huge floating Space Stations.

We're talking long time horizons here though folks, I wouldn't expect a significant presence on the Moon until the end of this century, and when I say significant, I mean self-sustaining. Heck, for the next 10 years we're all getting excited about Space enterprises talking about LEO flights!

By the time we move beyond that we're already in the 2020s, heading for 2030! If you look at the 70 years from 1960-2030, then you realise that these things do not move quickly - and that's discounting economic issues back here on Earth which could have terrible effects on Space Exploration.

There are simply too many variables.

I would hope that by the end of this century we'll have a self-sustaining Moon base(s) up and going, a permanent manned presence on Mars, and have visited some of the Asteroids, but beyond that, I can't see much happening this century - which is disappointing, but I think realistic.

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"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident." Arthur Schopenhauer - renowned 19th Century German philosopher.