Stripped of the hyperbole, the article merely points out that space mining will only be profitable if the exercise is largely self-sufficient. If every piece of

Stripped of the hyperbole, the article merely points out that space mining will only be profitable if the exercise is largely self-sufficient. If every piece of equipment needs to be launched from Earth's surface, then it's going to be very tough to make it profitable. I don't think the space mining start-ups he's so dismissive of were in any doubt about that. His fictional example of "Moon" is illustrative. That film was set in a Helium-3 mining facility. Helium-3 simply doesn't exist on Earth. If we get to the point where we need it to power our advanced fusion reactors, then we'll have no alternative but to create a space-based mining industry. Once the infrastructure is in place for that, then lots of other space-mining opportunities will start to look tempting too.