Given that folks want to automatically mine asteroids I'm amazed at how little I can find on automating mining. There is this puff piece: http://www.miningaustralia.com.au/features/automation-leadin... from 2011 where someone from Rockwell Automation was trying to sell mining companies on this stuff but this should be an interesting topic for anyone who wants to do anything on remote planets/asteroids/moons.
Obviously no automatic machine is going to ever be as cheap as a few $1200/month miners here on Earth, but I wonder how that would work out in space. With the cost of sending people/equipment into space being huge anyway, sending humans might be actually more expensive than sending machines.
