So, for the Space Book, one thing I do is try to read semi-similar modern writing. I'm reading a seemingly well-researched book that claims the moon will be mined for resources. This seems crazy?
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Replying to @ZachWeiner
What exactly crazy is about it? Lots of Al, Ti, and Fe-rich minerals there. Perfect for building orbital habitats and solar power satellites in L4 and L5, especially given the shallow gravity well. Energy is the limiting factor, and novel refining techniques.
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Replying to @AstroBioGeek
But why do we want those things? We have habitats on Earth and solar power on Earth.
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Replying to @ZachWeiner @AstroBioGeek
If the goal is to live in space and not make a profit then it could makes sense. Of course the question is then how do you pay for it.
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Nobody has been able to show a clear business case of for a lot of people in space so far. So I think the scenario where it happens won't be economically motivated (or very weakly). It will be ideological. And maybe someone find a way to make it profitable (or not too expensive)
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I don't know my history enough to know how much of the early NA colonies were really ideological (religious or whatever) but clearly a number of them were not founded on the basis of making it a profitable trading endeavor.
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My hope is that we can lower the cost enough that you could found a space habitat just because you want to live there and make a sustainable community and not because it's going to be a massively profitable venture.
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Replying to @lougrims @AstroBioGeek
I think there's maybe a backdoor case via tourism, but how you jump from that to people having babies on the moon will be interesting!
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Replying to @ZachWeiner @AstroBioGeek
@MorlockP has an interesting path in his books where space habitation comes from disgruntled AnCap entrepreneurs who just want to escape gouvernements' regulations. Of course it has SF liberties but it's entertaining.1 reply 0 retweets 3 likes -
They do want to do it, though given the progress of mere seasteading...
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Seasteading fails in the political realm- if you're close enough to the powers that be, their de factor matters more than their de jure
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