GOLDEN, COLORADO -- Digging in deep on the high frontier sure has changed from the days of the Gold Rush. In the 21st century, we're talking about mining the Moon, "living off the land" on distant Mars, drilling into hard-core asteroids and siphoning off water from slushy comets.

And long-term self-sufficiency on Earth means creating a space resources roadmap say experts gathering here this week at the Colorado School of Mines.

About 100 engineers and scientists are taking part in the school's Space Resources Round Table, being held November 8-10. They are detailing ways to crank out products from the space environment, be they solar cells, fiber-optic cable, construction materials or precious caches of rocket fuel and oxygen.

"Everybody is hoping that as we get beyond the initial stages of the International Space Station, people will really start thinking in a serious way about the Moon and Mars for human exploration," said Mike Duke, round-table convener and research scientist at the Colorado School of Mines.

If humans are to gain a sustained foothold on the Moon or Mars, making use of on-the-spot resources is paramount, Duke told SPACE.com.

Similar in view is Franklin Schowengerdt, director of the Center for Commercial Applications of Combustion in Space at the Colorado School of Mines.

"The whole purpose of this workshop is to keep the discussions alive," Schowengerdt said. "If we ever do go back to the Moon and establish a permanent presence there, using space resources is inevitable."

Related to space mining and natural resources, NASA has been quietly putting the final touches on the Human Exploration and Development of Space Technology/Commercialization Initiative -- a heady title for must-have technologies to support "multiple sites of exploration," said Gerald Sanders, a space resources specialist at NASAs Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

"The first major step needs to be assessment of space resources for scientific, human exploration and space commercialization needs," Sanders said. Before humans return to the Moon, rendezvous with asteroids, or trek to Mars, full-knowledge of the mineralogy, composition and mechanical properties of space resources is necessary.

"This data is needed a good six to 10 years before the actual mission, to minimize risks and maximize mission benefits," Sanders said.

Since early this year, NASAs Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft has been dutifully circling the asteroid Eros. While that space rock may or may not be best resource target of choice, it is the first asteroid thats undergone an intense examination.

Gertsch said that bodies of special interest, such as potential Earth-impactors or high-value asteroids, should be targeted for more in-depth looks, including physical sampling.

Kevin Reed, chief scientist for BAE Systems in San Diego, California, said there is no lack of far-out concepts to make use of asteroids.

"The problem for asteroid space-resource utilization is not so much a vision for 2050. There is an abundance of that type of vision," Reed said. "What most people dont have is a plan for 2001 to get to [the] 2050 vision."