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tanrgith t1_irohmk3 wrote

There's not really any viable business model for space mining currently.

You need two things for it to become viable.

  1. The technology to mine asteroids in an efficient and safe manner

  2. A demand for the materials you mine

Right now neither exists

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the-Replenisher1984 t1_irp8een wrote

I'd say the demand exists in a way since those precious metals are definitely a limited resource. Its just completely unfeasible to have it be done now. Infrastructure is zero, technology isn't there yet, and even then the astroid belt is how far away? We haven't even landed anyone on the moon (our absolute closest celestial body) since 1972. Unless the space race heats way up again I'd say we're decades off from seeing asteroids being mined any time soon. I just realized we both said the same thing basically, but I'm a windbag so yeah your right.

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