Vested Interest

When NASA finally loses its funding and the media claims that the public has turned its back on space, only James Looven and Amy, his daughter's best friend seem to be outraged. Railing against the world's stupidity, they soon realize that support for the space program is more widespread than they have been led to believe. Lacking government funding, they rally the many thousands who don't want humanity to die at the bottom of a gravity well, and even while Earth reels from famine and resource scarcity they decide to build their own program.
Working with hundreds of like-minded others they realize that the return to space is not only possible but surprisingly easy. Only when they go further afield do they find that the solar system through a telescope is very different than the reality of stepping on an asteroid. In the distant stretches of the asteroid belt they make a discovery about Vesta that changes forever how humanity thinks about the asteroid as well as the potential of such materials.
The only question that remains is whether they want to come back to Earth and her many problems.