The Midas Program is the first direct commercial exploitation of resources in outer space. Conceived in 1957 by an aging Adrianus Orilla, the initiative involved building mining sites on celestial bodies to extract internal minerals. While an immensely ambitious undertaking, its success have proved to be the single most profitable endeavor over the whole course of human history. In his memoirs, Emperor Raphael briefly discusses his later involvement in the project and why he made the decision to restart it. Translated, and reorganized, into idiomatic English, this is an excerpt :