Sheffield's McAndrew series prefers it out in Oort. I just finished "The Manna Hunt", which parallels the Gateway sequel (1980) in proposing Malthusian Earth's hunt for food as our spur to get out there.
I for one question Malthus (many of us question Malthus) but hey - 1980, Late Great Planet Earth, Population Bomb and the rest of it. Although Sheffield, himself, should have known better. An alternative pull to other planet(oid)s for food would be phosphorous. Or maybe something horrible happened to Earth like Dan Simmons' Big Mistake. And no, I am still not taking Climate Change seriously; but we have many other ways to system-collapse.
The outer comets got CHON; fine. And rock. Probably salt too. The story assumes a core of radionuclides and I am overall unsure what levels of phosphorous they got, but whatever.
What I don't get is how come they need to take McAndrew's scientifically-dubious "balanced drive" half a light year from home when they can, like, go on a fusion-propelled trip to Ceres.
The story is fine, as far as it goes, but it's not nearly the Hard Science Fiction it could be.
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