YaAbsolyutnoNikto t1_itffcsj wrote on October 23, 2022 at 6:27 AM

Reply to comment by Frogmarsh in Next month, Japanese company iSpace will become the first private company to deliver a lunar lander and commercial payload to the moon's surface. Two more private companies aim to follow them in 2023. Is this the start of a lunar economy? by lughnasadh

Due to the lower gravitational pull of the moon compared to earth, launching rockets there consumes a lot less energy.

In other words, it is cheaper and easier to have rockets flying around. It also means that rockets can carry more cargo for the same amount of fuel.

So, this all means that mining for resources in asteroids, planets, etc. can be much more easily done.

This is great because we do need resources. Some of them are scarce on earth. Others require us to destroy ecosystems to get them (like diamonds, lithium, etc.).

anglesideside1 t1_itg1vtw wrote on October 23, 2022 at 11:30 AM

If this is the best reason, then how do I short this company? Are they publicly traded?

YaAbsolyutnoNikto t1_itg6d51 wrote on October 23, 2022 at 12:19 PM

No idea. But they’re not the only ones.

As far as I know, spacex and a company in luxembourg are also working on it.

Anyway, why would you want to short it?

anglesideside1 t1_itg784e wrote on October 23, 2022 at 12:27 PM

Seems like a money pit, and until there’s an actual hard cost imposed to destroying ecosystems (I’m not talking about socialized costs associated with climate change), then it’ll be cheaper to mine whatever minerals here.

dantemp t1_itk9o4y wrote on October 24, 2022 at 7:24 AM

Asteroid mining will definitely become a major industry. The question isn't if, the question is when. You might be right that the first few attempt fail but only because we'd have to work out the kinks, not because having an infinite resource that nobody has a claim on is a bad idea.