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Comment by sam0x17 | Hacker News Reader

> That doesn't mean we need to stop humans from exploring the solar system until everyone, everywhere is covered.

Sending billionaires into space so they can film Tik-Toks from an in-orbit Tesla roadster and get mining rights to all the precious metals in the solar system while patenting and monopolizing critical space travel tech doesn't advance humanity at all, it sets us back. Government investment in and exploration of space pushes us forward, as do massive taxes on billionaires and redistributing their wealth to the general populace and public works projects.

It's astounding to me that there is any non-billionaire alive that doesn't realize this.

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At this point any kind of business that does repeatable and sustainable space flights is good, is even if it's for the entertainment of the billionaires. Slowly and surely the process will get improved and the cost will go down and maybe some of those taxpayers will see space after all.

As I've stated elsewhere in this thread, this is not true. It is quite possible to do actual damage to our future if we allow corporate monopolization of the resources or means of getting into space. Work like this is too important to leave to privatization, but funding of our space program has lagged so grossly that the only option left is billionaire charlatans who want to stake their claim on the stars in a race to monopolize the resources of space.

I think we can wait to argue about who gets the space resources until we can reliably get to space. Currently the resource being exploited by the "charlatans" is pretty views from upper atmosphere. As long as they don't leave trash in orbit, which this is very far from, they can do it all day long for all I care.

Also this whole focus on the billionaires is misguided. Up until very recently only large nation states could afford to have a space program that is any more ambitious than delivering a satellite to orbit. Now it's eccentric billionaires. Tomorrow it'll be small cap companies. Elon Musk is not getting Mars, don't worry.

You are just asserting things that sound good on Twitter. Please try to have a more constructive dialog on HN.

How many more astrophysicists would we have if the current wealth of the top 10 billionaires went to our educational system and bringing people out of poverty? Sending billionaires into space accomplishes nothing that the rest of humanity can benefit from, and actually would do a good bit of damage to our future. Sure, the tech will get better, but it will be patented and upcharged in a way similar to our pharmaceutical industry, only with fewer regulations. Space is too important a frontier and space exploration is too important an endeavor to squander in this way. We need NASA in space, not billionaires.

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