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We don't actually know much about Ceres. All we know about it is from earth-based or earth-orbit-based observation. Until now it wasn't visited by a probe, but the Dawn spacecraft will do so in February 2015. This will likely give us much more insight into its composition.

What we do know, is that Ceres is quite small. Its mass is estimated to be only about 1.3% of that of the Moon. Its surface gravity is estimated to be only $0.27 m/s^2$. A low surface gravity makes colonization harder because astronauts will suffer almost as much from muscle atrophy, osteoporosis and other health problems like they do in microgravity in low earth orbit. But when it comes to researching and/or exploiting nearby asteroids, low gravity makes things easier, because this means it wouldn't require much energy to escape its gravity well and perform a landing.

Ceres surface seems to contain ice. At least that's what it's infrared signature implies. Ice can potentially be melted and filtered into drinking-water, or split into oxygen for breathing and hydrogen for generating energy from nuclear fusion (which is still science fiction, but so is asteroid mining and space colonization). Another application of hydrogen and oxygen is that it can be liquidized and used as bipropellant for liquid-fuel rockets. That's an important plus-point for exploration. The surface also seems to contain some iron-rich minerals which could potentially be suitable for creating building material for habitats or maybe even space vessels, but that's hard to tell without an actual soil sample.

Ceres seems to be quite warm for an object so far away from the sun. Its maximum temparature seems to be about -38° C. It also rotates quite fast (rotation period of 9 hours) which meanst that the temperature differences on the surface won't be very large. This is also not that bad of a thing.

But in the end Ceres doesn't seem to be much more or less of a candidate for colonization than other large ice-asteroids. But maybe Dawn will tell us more.

This answer is outdated. The Dawn flyby in February 2015 added a lot of information which was not known at the writing of this answer.

We don't actually know much about Ceres. All we know about it is from earth-based or earth-orbit-based observation. Until now it wasn't visited by a probe, but the Dawn spacecraft will do so in February 2015. This will likely give us much more insight into its composition.

What we do know, is that Ceres is quite small. Its mass is estimated to be only about 1.3% of that of the Moon. Its surface gravity is estimated to be only $0.27 m/s^2$. A low surface gravity makes colonization harder because astronauts will suffer almost as much from muscle atrophy, osteoporosis and other health problems like they do in microgravity in low earth orbit. But when it comes to researching and/or exploiting nearby asteroids, low gravity makes things easier, because this means it wouldn't require much energy to escape its gravity well and perform a landing.

Ceres surface seems to contain ice. At least that's what it's infrared signature implies. Ice can potentially be melted and filtered into drinking-water, or split into oxygen for breathing and hydrogen for generating energy from nuclear fusion (which is still science fiction, but so is asteroid mining and space colonization). Another application of hydrogen and oxygen is that it can be liquidized and used as bipropellant for liquid-fuel rockets. That's an important plus-point for exploration. The surface also seems to contain some iron-rich minerals which could potentially be suitable for creating building material for habitats or maybe even space vessels, but that's hard to tell without an actual soil sample.

Ceres seems to be quite warm for an object so far away from the sun. Its maximum temparature seems to be about -38° C. It also rotates quite fast (rotation period of 9 hours) which meanst that the temperature differences on the surface won't be very large. This is also not that bad of a thing.

But in the end Ceres doesn't seem to be much more or less of a candidate for colonization than other large ice-asteroids. But maybe Dawn will tell us more.

We don't actually know much about Ceres. All we know about it is from earth-based or earth-orbit-based observation. Until now it wasn't visited by a probe, but the Dawn spacecraft will do so in February 2015. This will likely give us much more insight into its composition.

What we do know, is that Ceres is quite small. Its mass is estimated to be only about 1.3% of that of the Moon. Its surface gravity is estimated to be only 0.27 m/s. A low surface gravity makes colonization harder because astronauts will suffer almost as much from muscle atrophy, osteoporosis and other health problems like they do in microgravity in low earth orbit. But when it comes to researching and/or exploiting nearby asteroids, low gravity makes things easier, because this means it wouldn't require much energy to escape its gravity well and perform a landing.

Ceres surface seems to contain ice. At least that's what it's infrared signature implies. Ice can potentially be melted and filtered into drinking-water, or split into oxygen for breathing and hydrogen for generating energy from nuclear fusion (which is still science fiction, but so is asteroid mining and space colonization). Another application of hydrogen and oxygen is that it can be liquidized and used as bipropellant for liquid-fuel rockets. That's an important plus-point for exploration. The surface also seems to contain some iron-rich minerals which could potentially be suitable for creating building material for habitats or maybe even space vessels, but that's hard to tell without an actual soil sample.

Ceres seems to be quite warm for an object so far away from the sun. Its maximum temparature seems to be about -38° C. It also rotates quite fast (rotation period of 9 hours) which meanst that the temperature differences on the surface won't be very large. This is also not that bad of a thing.

But in the end Ceres doesn't seem to be much more or less of a candidate for colonization than other large ice-asteroids. But maybe Dawn will tell us more.

We don't actually know much about Ceres. All we know about it is from earth-based or earth-orbit-based observation. Until now it wasn't visited by a probe, but the Dawn spacecraft will do so in February 2015. This will likely give us much more insight into its composition.

What we do know, is that Ceres is quite small. Its mass is estimated to be only about 1.3% of that of the Moon. Its surface gravity is estimated to be only $0.27 m/s^2$. A low surface gravity makes colonization harder because astronauts will suffer almost as much from muscle atrophy, osteoporosis and other health problems like they do in microgravity in low earth orbit. But when it comes to researching and/or exploiting nearby asteroids, low gravity makes things easier, because this means it wouldn't require much energy to escape its gravity well and perform a landing.

Ceres surface seems to contain ice. At least that's what it's infrared signature implies. Ice can potentially be melted and filtered into drinking-water, or split into oxygen for breathing and hydrogen for generating energy from nuclear fusion (which is still science fiction, but so is asteroid mining and space colonization). Another application of hydrogen and oxygen is that it can be liquidized and used as bipropellant for liquid-fuel rockets. That's an important plus-point for exploration. The surface also seems to contain some iron-rich minerals which could potentially be suitable for creating building material for habitats or maybe even space vessels, but that's hard to tell without an actual soil sample.

Ceres seems to be quite warm for an object so far away from the sun. Its maximum temparature seems to be about -38° C. It also rotates quite fast (rotation period of 9 hours) which meanst that the temperature differences on the surface won't be very large. This is also not that bad of a thing.

But in the end Ceres doesn't seem to be much more or less of a candidate for colonization than other large ice-asteroids. But maybe Dawn will tell us more.

We don't actually know much about Ceres. All we know about it is from earth-based or earth-orbit-based observation. Until now it wasn't visited by a probe, but the Dawn spacecraft will do so in February 2015. This will likely give us much more insight into its composition.

What we do know, is that Ceres is quite small. Its mass is estimated to be only about 1.2% of that of the Moon. Its surface gravity is estimated to be only 0.27 m/s. A low surface gravity makes colonization harder because astronauts will suffer almost as much from muscle atrophy, osteoporosis and other health problems like they do in microgravity in low earth orbit. But when it comes to researching and/or exploiting nearby asteroids, low gravity makes things easier, because this means it wouldn't require much energy to escape its gravity well and perform a landing.

Ceres surface seems to contain ice. At least that's what it's infrared signature implies. Ice can potentially be melted and filtered into drinking-water, or split into oxygen for breathing and hydrogen for generating energy from nuclear fusion (which is still science fiction, but so is asteroid mining and space colonization). Another application of hydrogen and oxygen is that it can be liquidized and used as bipropellant for liquid-fuel rockets. That's an important plus-point for exploration. The surface also seems to contain some iron-rich minerals which could potentially be suitable for creating building material for habitats or maybe even space vessels, but that's hard to tell without an actual soil sample.

Ceres seems to be quite warm for an object so far away from the sun. Its maximum temparature seems to be about -38° C. It also rotates quite fast (rotation period of 9 hours) which meanst that the temperature differences on the surface won't be very large. This is also not that bad of a thing.

But in the end Ceres doesn't seem to be much more or less of a candidate for colonization than other large ice-asteroids. But maybe Dawn will tell us more.

We don't actually know much about Ceres. All we know about it is from earth-based or earth-orbit-based observation. Until now it wasn't visited by a probe, but the Dawn spacecraft will do so in February 2015. This will likely give us much more insight into its composition.

What we do know, is that Ceres is quite small. Its mass is estimated to be only about 1.3% of that of the Moon. Its surface gravity is estimated to be only 0.27 m/s. A low surface gravity makes colonization harder because astronauts will suffer almost as much from muscle atrophy, osteoporosis and other health problems like they do in microgravity in low earth orbit. But when it comes to researching and/or exploiting nearby asteroids, low gravity makes things easier, because this means it wouldn't require much energy to escape its gravity well and perform a landing.

Ceres surface seems to contain ice. At least that's what it's infrared signature implies. Ice can potentially be melted and filtered into drinking-water, or split into oxygen for breathing and hydrogen for generating energy from nuclear fusion (which is still science fiction, but so is asteroid mining and space colonization). Another application of hydrogen and oxygen is that it can be liquidized and used as bipropellant for liquid-fuel rockets. That's an important plus-point for exploration. The surface also seems to contain some iron-rich minerals which could potentially be suitable for creating building material for habitats or maybe even space vessels, but that's hard to tell without an actual soil sample.

Ceres seems to be quite warm for an object so far away from the sun. Its maximum temparature seems to be about -38° C. It also rotates quite fast (rotation period of 9 hours) which meanst that the temperature differences on the surface won't be very large. This is also not that bad of a thing.

But in the end Ceres doesn't seem to be much more or less of a candidate for colonization than other large ice-asteroids. But maybe Dawn will tell us more.