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Re:High-Tech can’t last: there are limited essential elements by mcv on Wednesday June 12, 2019 @07:01AM (#20163355)
I'd also expect many of these elements to exist in asteroids. Wouldn't it be better to mine those instead?
Re:High-Tech can’t last: there are limited essential elements by Sharlin on Wednesday June 12, 2019 @08:04AM (#20163658)
I’m sure someone will, the moment it becomes more economical than exploiting what we have on Earth (including recycling—it’s not like the rare earths are consumed, they’re just discarded because extracting the pristine stuff is still too cheap!) I’m not going to hold my breath.
Re:High-Tech can’t last: there are limited essential elements by raxxorrax on Wednesday June 12, 2019 @07:09AM (#20163392)
Rare earth is everywhere, there just needs to be an economic incentive to mine them. Which is still low and you cannot get to an industrial scale in a few days.
Re:High-Tech can’t last: there are limited essential elements by opencl on Wednesday June 12, 2019 @08:49AM (#20163986)
Maybe after the price of rockets drops by several orders of magnitude and the price of obtaining the elements on Earth also increases by several orders of magnitude.