Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

sheriffhd t1_ja4xz4m wrote

Tbh knowing how business work it wouldn't matter so long as it makes profit

1

TheEverHumbled t1_ja6za4n wrote

The business model of extractive industries helps explain why this is a no for the forseeable future, and very very likely forever.

Mining and Oil drilling operate based on constraints of physical reality which drives costs(e.g. cost of equipment, workers, etc). Reserves of resources exist in a bunch of places which are simply impractical to extract based on present prices and technology.

The key point is that extractive businesses don't go everywhere and extract everything- they add projects which have the best potential for profits. As more material is extracted, market demand would fall, and make costlier extraction less profitable.

The moon is pretty massive for any forseeable timescale- by the time lunar mining is of any noticeable scale, humanity would likely have spread out a lot more mining activities to the asteroid belt (assuming of course human civilization can reach such a point), and most resources would have cheaper sources(sitting even closer to 0 g environment).

1