Space is starting to look like the better mining operation
arstechnica.com
Mining in space might be less environmentally harmful than mining asteroids on Earth.

Space is starting to look like the better mining operation | Mining in space might be less environmentally harmful than mining asteroids on Earth.::Mining in space might be less environmentally harmful than mining asteroids on Earth.

  • frezik@midwest.socialEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    There isn’t likely to be much material shipped down the gravity well. It’s too expensive unless you can also build a space elevator, and maybe not even then. Maybe for some very high value metals, like platinum. Otherwise, the value of the metal has to be greater than the value of the heat shield that you’re going to ablate away on entry.

    Asteroid mining is very useful for building things in space. Not so much on Earth.