this post was submitted on 30 Jul 2023
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Space
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Cover author: Michał Kałużny http://astrofotografia.pl/
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There are several institutes that differ from your opinion on abundance and profitability. There is an estimated millions of tons of helium-3 in the lunar surface at just a few meters down and it's estimated that just 25 tons would suffice to fuel the US power consumption for a year, and 200 ton for global needs.
Regardless of helium-3, establishing the infrastructure will allow for other mining as well. Platinum and other rare earth metals. Whoever does it first is going to make a butt load of money.
@zhunk
@McBinary
Hopefully one of these firms is correct... I suspect these companies are mostly looking to make money from their investors and not for their investors. But hey, that's how our economy works at this point; mostly speculation, less so results.
I hope so too. I just want to see some space faring progress in my lifetime. I missed the boat and am too dumb to contribute, but I can hope greed can bridge the gap where basic human progress fails to meet expansionist ideals. If it has to begin on the backs of investor money, at least it gets the ball rolling.