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The first time we went was motivated (and funded) by the Cold War. Now someone has to come up with a viable business model.

I'm not smart enough to come up with one. Space tourism for the super rich?

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I liked the idea of helium mining. Even if we couldn't ship it back, it could be used remotely for the applications that require liquid helium cooling. We're running out of helium, and sometimes liquid nitrogen doesn't cut it.

As a somewhat partial astrophysicist, remembering the increasing scarcity of helium on Earth is always amusing. It's the second most abundant element in the universe, after all. It's just that when you are near a star, light elements are easily heated and move away quickly towards the oort cloud and interstellar space.

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