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A space elevator on Ceres (with today's tech) and the gravitational assist of Jupiter for returning payloads back to Earth, could allow us to start mining the asteroid belt costing just $5 billion. (www.universetoday.com)

submitted 2 months ago by Lugh to c/futurology

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[–] ChicoSuave@lemmy.world -5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

What's even out there? Dirty water? The same minerals that can be found on earth, just impossibly far and difficult to get?

What does that $5B get you for the trouble? Legislation for space crews, space work, and probably some rare medals like iridium or platinum. What's most likely expected is weird grade silica and some ferrous metal we already have access to here in decent amounts. It's not worth it.

[–] CookieOfFortune@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

The only benefit I can see is if you don’t take anything back down the gravity well. Build up manufacturing directly in space.