this post was submitted on 23 Sep 2023
2012 points (96.1% liked)
Memes
46009 readers
3805 users here now
Rules:
- Be civil and nice.
- Try not to excessively repost, as a rule of thumb, wait at least 2 months to do it if you have to.
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I think they called it a "step back" in terms of being worse for the environment, because of batteries, etc, while a common bike can be used for years and years without creating additional pollution.
That tech is unfortunately too far off at this point to be able to supply batteries to the surface of the earth in time to meet the demand from all the new electric vehicles we're seeing.
0G Mining isn't a solved problem either, but we have almost zero experience with controlled reentry of materials at that scale. We would need to manufacture heat shields in space in order to do it, which is a whole other can of worms.
The issue isn't whether we can mine space rocks, or even if we can bring back materials from space, it's about doing it at scale and cost-effectively, soon enough for it to matter.