• tee9000@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    Spaceflight is really important to humanity. Mining resources and proving concepts should be done. Having it carried out by corporations isnt ideal but thay doesnt mean it is better to stop. Let them burn their cash on r&d. Space is really high risk with inconsistent profitability.

    • _pi@lemmy.ml
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      3 days ago

      If you think corporations are going to outlay the capital to develop a realistic extra-planetary mining technology soup to nuts and in comparable time to public investment, you should be licking Elon Musk’s boots.

      Let them burn their cash on r&d

      Damn if only we could use that cash for something else.

      • tee9000@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        You cant mine without reliable spaceflight, which is whats being proven now. Obviously spacex’s cash would not be used to buy everyone dinner if they stopped spaceflight operations, so im not sure how your take is in the realm of reality. If you want to attribute spacex’s work to elon alone then thats your business.

        • _pi@lemmy.ml
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          3 days ago

          You cant mine without reliable spaceflight, which is whats being proven now.

          The following interplanetary flights to Mars: Sojourner (1997), Spirit (2004–2010), Opportunity (2004–2018), Curiosity (2012–present), Perseverance (2021-Present), and Zhurong (2021-2022) weren’t enough to “prove out reliable space flight” for you?

          You need MarsCoin to do it?

          • lad@programming.dev
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            3 days ago

            I would argue that you mentioned events that were rare and much prepared (also omit failed attempts), while what is required for any resource extraction must be mass-available. On the other hand, I don’t think any space resource mining will be reasonable, as I expect it to require more resources than provide.

    • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      We’re not mining anything in space anytime soon. The climate crisis will end that possibility long before we can develop automated systems sufficient to get the mechanics in place and ore safely back to wherever it’s needed on Earth.

      Right now spaceflight is just another profit vehicle for billionaires. The don’t get paid because of the work the companies do, they get paid because the stocks they have from those companies keep going up.