this post was submitted on 15 Jul 2024
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Scientists have for the first time discovered a cave on the Moon.

At least 100m deep, it could be an ideal place for humans to build a permanent base, they say.

It is just one in probably hundreds of caves hidden in an “underground, undiscovered world”, according to the researchers.

Countries are racing to establish a permanent human presence on the Moon, but they will need to protect astronauts from radiation, extreme temperatures, and space weather.

Helen Sharman, the first British astronaut to travel to space, told BBC News that the newly-discovered cave looked like a good place for a base, and suggested humans could potentially be living in lunar pits in 20-30 years.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Lemma: Earth lodes are assumed to be limited supply.

Find a Smaug-scale lode of d-block transition metal like gold or palladium on the Moon or a near-Earth asteroid. Crash the market. Buy other metals at fire sale prices.

Also, own the silicon semiconductor market.

Profit.

We did neocolonialism. It was profitable. Nobody forgot that.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Do we have any reason to believe there's giant blocks of pure, rare metals on the moon or asteroids? At least on earth we (well mostly China) gets them by processing more common metals and extracting the tiny portion of REs.

We did neocolonialism. It was profitable. Nobody forgot that.

*are doing, is profitable

There's no brown people on the moon you can give a dictator weapons to in exchange for keeping the people selling their labor and resources for peanuts.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

OK fine, we are mid-neocolonial. Accepted.

Do we have any reason to believe there's giant blocks of pure, rare metals on the moon or asteroids?

So far there's no evidence to the contrary. Speculative interest says "keep digging, there's bound to be one out there" among the rocky asteroids. Heck, even "comet water might" bring a price, given trends.

There's no brown people on the moon you can give a dictator weapons to in exchange for keeping the people selling their labor and resources for peanuts.

If you think the next wave of neocolonialism wouldn't consider indentured servitude and/or conscription, well... I guess we shall see. You don't need indigenous people, just poors.

Edit: ...when you can just turn off their air.