this post was submitted on 12 May 2024
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[–] [email protected] 58 points 3 months ago (3 children)

Imagine claiming mining helium is the solution when free energy is right there radiating from the sun.

[–] [email protected] 40 points 3 months ago (3 children)

Imagine thinking there's only one solution.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Starting an international corporate race to carve up the moon seems like a good choice.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 3 months ago

That obviously being the only other choice, of course.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Maybe with automated gathering and launched via mass launcher directly into earths athmosphere, it could be somewhat cost-competitive

[–] [email protected] -3 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

Straw-man and False dichotomy.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago (1 children)

They literally made an either or declaration of their own...

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

No a better alternative was pointed out, that does not exclude that others may also exist.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 months ago (1 children)

How do you suggest producing a significant amount of thrust in a vacuum using the sun?

[–] [email protected] -2 points 3 months ago (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Solar sails don't produce a significant amount of thrust, you didn't answer my question.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

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?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

I am referring to commercial speculation, and I literally laid this out in the second sentence, thanks!

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 43 points 3 months ago (1 children)

How to get contries to develop their space programs and colonize the moon: "Its made of oil!"

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I really wanted to go when I was a kid and was told it was made out of cheese.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I heard it was Wensleydale and I wasn't that keen

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

More Wensleydale for me then :3

[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 months ago

This whole post is a joke about Moon Nazis! Is it?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

Yeeeesssss. Love seeing Red Rising references. Trying so hard to get my wife to read it

[–] [email protected] -1 points 3 months ago

My goodman, you sound like a Red pretending to be a Gold.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Wait, isn’t this just the plot of that Sam* Rockwell movie - Moon?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)
[–] rottingleaf 1 points 3 months ago

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.