TL;DR
The first serious asteroid-mining startup has decided its next spacecraft will not take orders from Earth at all. AstroForge's Autonomy-1, planned for 2027, will be run start to finish by an onboard AI called Solo, because a ground network to steer it would cost about $200 million. That is the shape of the field today: tiny companies, big ambitions and machines that have to think for themselves far from home. Nobody has landed on, mined or brought back metal from an asteroid for money. The whole haul of asteroid rock on Earth is about 125 grams, roughly a quarter pound, all from science missions. If the robots work, the solar system's metals and water start to look like a supply chain. If not, it stays science.
Below the line, for paid subscribers: The full story: where it stands, how we got here and what's dated next; our Odds board on 6 milestones, starting with "AstroForge's AI-run Autonomy-1 launches by 2027"; and every source.