3 ms·

a recent megaprojects video claimed harvesting water from asteroids was more worth the time and money than to do the same for rare earth metals. apparently bri

a recent megaprojects video claimed harvesting water from asteroids was more worth the time and money than to do the same for rare earth metals. apparently bringing tons of rare earth metals back to earth would only lower their price and therefore not make the trip worth the money, but i guess this isn't a problem for the water that those asteroid might hold as that would still be not only valuable but worth the expense of harvesting it from asteroids. if the moon is closer, and not only less complicated to harvest from but has the advantage that you can keep a permanent drilling rig set up without needing to re-land on a complicated surface every single time, that would seem better than harvesting water from asteroids to me

NickM 4y ago
That seems like a bizarre take. Even with efficient fully reusable rockets, surely desalination will still be much cheaper than mining water from asteroids and bringing it back to Earth? And sure, maybe bringing huge amounts of rare earth metals back might reduce the price a bit, but to the point where rare earth elements are cheaper per mass unit than water?
- nathan_compton 4y ago
  If we ever have a space elevator bringing water down from space could actually be a net negative expense, since you could be using the weight to carry stuff up out of the gravity well.
  - Tagbert 4y ago
    "If we ever have a space elevator" such a simple phrase doing a lot of rhetorical lifting. The logistics and problems of space elevators make them extremely unlikely in any timeframe that is less than fantasy.
    - nathan_compton 4y ago
      Agreed!
- stainablesteel 4y ago
  it seems bizarre to me too, i'd also think the practical use of having stores of rare earth metals outweighs their initial value simply due to current inaccessibility but i think the video was saying this as a long-term business strategy wouldn't work, as the cost would decrease over time for the initial cost of all the engineering i'm unfortunately unable to comment on the economics of space water

NickM 4y ago

That seems like a bizarre take. Even with efficient fully reusable rockets, surely desalination will still be much cheaper than mining water from asteroids and bringing it back to Earth? And sure, maybe bringing huge amounts of rare earth metals back might reduce the price a bit, but to the point where rare earth elements are cheaper per mass unit than water?

nathan_compton 4y ago
If we ever have a space elevator bringing water down from space could actually be a net negative expense, since you could be using the weight to carry stuff up out of the gravity well.
- Tagbert 4y ago
  "If we ever have a space elevator" such a simple phrase doing a lot of rhetorical lifting. The logistics and problems of space elevators make them extremely unlikely in any timeframe that is less than fantasy.
  - nathan_compton 4y ago
    Agreed!
stainablesteel 4y ago
it seems bizarre to me too, i'd also think the practical use of having stores of rare earth metals outweighs their initial value simply due to current inaccessibility but i think the video was saying this as a long-term business strategy wouldn't work, as the cost would decrease over time for the initial cost of all the engineering i'm unfortunately unable to comment on the economics of space water