this post was submitted on 31 May 2025
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We could do space mining today if their was any incentive to do it. There just isn't any reason to currently but if we start using fusion power (which China has made strides in recently) it would make a ton of sense to get He-3 on the moon.
Hell I give it 20 years before a private company at the very least tries to move one of the really rare earth element rich asteoids into an orbit around earth. From the calculations I've seen we could technically do it with current rocket tech assuming proper planet alignment.
No we cannot you vastly over estimate the cost of bringing things in and out of orbit. Especially at the load it would need to be a financial incentive to create the infrastructure to do so regularly.
I'd bet my balls we won't mine shit in space for the rest of the 21st century