Earth is not fucked, but having a proper moon base makes key technologys a necessity, like really large scale co2 scrubbers. Also, the moon is basically a new gold mine for Helium-3, which is going to be very important in the future.

Having large scale co2 scrubbers makes a huge difference on earth as well.

[–] iridaniotter@lemmygrad.ml 1 points 2 years ago

Helium-3 is a fuel for fusion that does have its benefits, but most scientists are focused on Deuterium-Tritium reactions. On the moon, the most concentrated regolith has only 50 parts of helium-3 per billion. That is super sparse. Like, we may as well be sifting uranium out of Earth's oceans at that point. And if we're doing giant space-based megaprojects, the gas giants probably have higher concentrations of helium-3 or we could just beam power around from giant solar panels.

[–] iridaniotter@lemmygrad.ml 1 points 2 years ago

This is a fair argument against Elon Musk's dream to colonize Mars - it is indeed an escapist fantasy. But with the recent and upcoming moon missions, the involved parties (government orgs!) are quite clear that they're not doing it out of a false belief that they can make a self-sustaining colony. That stuff is over a century away. Only billionaires and their simps believe it lol.

[–] RickyRigatoni@lemmy.ml -1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

moon's not a planet

[–] Chariotwheel@kbin.social 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Progress doesn't start at settling on other planets. Gotta start to refine the technology ssomewhere.

[–] RickyRigatoni@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 years ago

pluto is a planet