We all want more money. Unless you have figured out the secrets of Buddhism or Taoism, money helps us achieve what we need and want. The only problem is that money isn’t easy to come by for the large majority of people. How do we get more money? Space exploration and mining.

A new infographic from the fine folks at Doctoral Programs points our economic ambitions to the stars. Google CEO Larry Page and others recently began funding a trip to mine an asteroid of the precious metals contained therein. Amazingly enough, one asteroid is worth $50 million in platinum alone. When you combine that with the other elements present, you get a giant rock that’s worth billions of dollars.

On top of space mining, the space tourism business is set to explode within the next few years. Once it becomes cheaper, you’ll see even the middle class buying their way into a trip to space. It’s a place that very few people have been and everybody has wanted to go since they were a kid.

So, we can totally keep on trying to make money off of what’s left of our planet, but we’ll eventually have to expand beyond Earth. Hopefully we’ll have proper travel by then to accomodate the many years it takes to put people on any planet beyond our own.

Graphic by www.doctoralprograms.org