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.
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.
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.
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.
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
