Asteroid belt

The asteroid belt is a ring of planetoid objects between Mars and the outer solar system. The Americans establish an industrial presence in the belt in the 1960s sending the Lewis and Clark to become the first human starship. The Germans also send a starship which is destroyed during the 1965-66 war with the Race. It is not mentioned how large a presence the human powers have in the belt by 2034 but it can be imagined to be significantly larger with permanent habitations. The asteroids can be very useful to space industry because of the abundance of minerals and the low gravity environment that eases extraction.