The Best Near-term Future of Space Exploration?

An anonymous reader writes: Much fanfare has been made about manned missions to moons and planets but little has been done about travel to the asteroids, that is until now. NASA has announced a trip to the asteroids by 2025. This type of mission has great potential for positive economic return based on the fact that no effort has to be spent on getting in and out of a planet's gravity well. Yes, we should go to the planets, but we should master mining the asteroid belt for resources first because it is easiest. What do you think?