You mine in space to build in space, mostly. But removing the ecological stress of deep mining, sea mining, and processing oxides instead of pure metals is not minor.
He-3 is certainly worth shipping back to Earth (for space nuts to use to fuel He-3 mining ships, obviously).
We’ve gotten too used to politically generated stagnation, with resources burned up in phony wars and competition for corporate welfare… people in 1910, with 6% economic growth rates, were a lot more able to understand that it was time to start thinking about Tsiolovsky’s ideas.
You mine in space to build in space, mostly. But removing the ecological stress of deep mining, sea mining, and processing oxides instead of pure metals is not minor.
He-3 is certainly worth shipping back to Earth (for space nuts to use to fuel He-3 mining ships, obviously).
We’ve gotten too used to politically generated stagnation, with resources burned up in phony wars and competition for corporate welfare… people in 1910, with 6% economic growth rates, were a lot more able to understand that it was time to start thinking about Tsiolovsky’s ideas.