Elon Musk displacing parasite Jeff Bezos as the world's richest man makes me happy

submitted by Bagarmoossen from self.debatealtright

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[–]SoylentCapitalist 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Science has advanced greatly in the last 50 years. Surely, the data gathered would give great insights into prospects for a lunar base, space mining and astrobiology?

If we have the technology to make space mining profitable, it would no doubt be a better option to go to the Moon. It just isn't worth it from what I've read due to the high costs of shipping anything to and from Earth.

[–]casparvoneverecBig tiddy respecter 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Well you're right and wrong. The costs of shipping would be great but the rewards are enormous. A single asteriod of 1 mile diameter has more iron ore than what was mined in the entirety of earth in 2005. Space mining will have to be developed eventually to sustain industrial civilization due to the coming shortage of rare earth metals. It won't be long before the planet runs out of it as population keeps growing and standards of living sharply spike across the globe.