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Originally Posted by Ando
Space travel might ultimately resolve a lot of the problems we have on earth.
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Well, in ways that it already has. Weather and communications satellites. Remote sensing and crop monitoring. And soon, internet service in the third world and remote areas.
But colonization will never make the slightest dent in Earth's population. Asteroid mining will eventually be used in construction in space, but will never make economic sense for returning materials to Earth. And Helium-3 mining on the moon is largely economic science fiction. (If a market for it develops, we'll produce it cheaper on Earth.)
On the other hand...
Quote:
Originally Posted by headhorse
ya can't wait for a couple of ghouls to spend billions of dollars racing their space rockets to mars, that will help re-distribute wealth and save the environment from climate change
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...None of that money gets spent in space. Every penny is spent here on Earth. Redistributed.
As for climate change, it's worth mentioning that the guy "spending billions of dollars racing space rockets to Mars" is the same guy who kick-started the electric car industry. And who is kick-starting the electric long-haul trucking industry. And who is now revolutionizing the solar power industry with his solar shingle replacements and storage batteries. Turning solar from something one in every 10,000 homeowners has to something most will have.