Imagine claiming mining helium is the solution when free energy is right there radiating from the sun.
Imagine thinking there’s only one solution.
Starting an international corporate race to carve up the moon seems like a good choice.
That obviously being the only other choice, of course.
Maybe with automated gathering and launched via mass launcher directly into earths athmosphere, it could be somewhat cost-competitive
Straw-man and False dichotomy.
They literally made an either or declaration of their own…
No a better alternative was pointed out, that does not exclude that others may also exist.
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How do you suggest producing a significant amount of thrust in a vacuum using the sun?
Though, of course, simple scientific curiosity may not justify the enormous cost of the undertaking. That’s where commercial interest comes in.
That’s not what this is about, the author doesn’t care about that, all they see is a finite, exploitable resource that will line their pockets.
However, to answer your question, we already have that technology.
Solar sails don’t produce a significant amount of thrust, you didn’t answer my question.
Nuclear, or if you want space stuff, build a station at the Lagrange point and sling from there? I don’t need to be an expert in launch solutions to know that we shouldn’t speculate mining the moon till it’s well researched and that we have more accessible options here for the forseeable future with solar as my choice of example, so let’s not jump the gun on another finite resource?
You can’t launch a rocket using solar. Nuclear is exactly what helium-3 will provide. Speculation is the first step of exploiting the Moon’s value.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium-3#Nuclear_fuel
Do your research before acting like you know what you’re writing about. There are so many things to complain about when it comes to capitalism, this is not one of them.
I am referring to commercial speculation, and I literally laid this out in the second sentence, thanks!
Can a solar sail propel an object to relativistic speeds? The whole point of space travel is to go to other planets at a speed fast enough that the people going there will not be dead or elderly by the time they reach their destination. The only way to do that is by achieving light speed or damn near it. I do not want to board a solar sail vessel bound for Proxima Centauri b (4.22ly) and be dust by the time I get there.
Try driving a solar powered car.
Dunno if helium can be used in cars tho.Solar powered grid charges the car when not in use
Laughs in electric train
Car bad, train good
I fucking hate stroads
Nah, car good, train better. I also hate stroads.
Me on my way gettin on train to go to the far grocery store in my non-walkable city. /s
I understand why people likes trains, but it’s not the answer to every situation.
non-walkable city.
If the city is built ass backwards it would be a better investment to address that than start mining resources on the moon. Idk that’s just me though.
Yup, use the train to go medium to long distances, use a bicycle or feet to go short to medium distances.
it’s not the answer to every situation
Actually, better than that, I’m not an expert! There are professionals whose jobs are to design those systems and could do better than I putting together a solution. However, more destruction of finite resources when there is easy access to an unlimited resource should be limited to final resorts.
I think corps prefer using finite resources to make customers depend on buying them. Imagine being able to recharge your car by what you produce with your solar panels on your roof: you will spend money only on the car itself and not on the fuel.
I now require people who offer me to try out a solar powered car to provide directions to said car, lest your comment be labeled a sarcastic cock-tease.
How to get contries to develop their space programs and colonize the moon: “Its made of oil!”
I really wanted to go when I was a kid and was told it was made out of cheese.
I heard it was Wensleydale and I wasn’t that keen
More Wensleydale for me then :3
This whole post is a joke about Moon Nazis! Is it?
Send in the Reds!
Bloody damn pixie
Yeeeesssss. Love seeing Red Rising references. Trying so hard to get my wife to read it
My goodman, you sound like a Red pretending to be a Gold.
Wait, isn’t this just the plot of that Sam* Rockwell movie - Moon?
Or Iron Sky?
I think it was 20 years ago in a sci-fi themed magazine for kids (“Miracles and mysteries of the planet Earth” or “Young erudite” maybe) where I first have read something about this thing being mined in no further than 20 years from then.
Fusion is coming, who cares about He3?
SK had a 45 sec reaction, we might actually be less than 20 years away from net positive energy.
Well, it would be except it isnt a money making energy source so TPTB will only fund space miners instead.
Helium 3 is what we’re planning to use in fusion, that’s the point.
Fair enough, I assumed it was for batteries
I wish they’d throw more money at cold fusion too. Just need Palladium for that one 😅
Even if it was for batteries, unless we get fusion factors down to something that can fit in a car, power drill, smartphone, etc. batteries are still going to be a big part of the equation.
Sure, you can generate enough juice to power whatever you want, but only as long as it’s plugged in, anything that needs to get detached from the grid is still going to need batteries, and you probably don’t want your car hooked up to a 10 mile long power cord for your commute.
True, but we now have sodium batteries so thats cool
Palladium isn’t really being pursued anymore with most net gain fusion setups these days.
ITER will not be having the first full fusion before 2040. And that’s just a prototype for science, it will not be a fusion power plant for generating energy for the public grid. So: fusion is still not very near.
I wish this canard that fusion is right around the corner would die, we’re nowhere near. Where are people like OP getting their information from?
