• anomnom@sh.itjust.works
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    9 hours ago

    I still want to know how having anyone on mars was supposed to be profitable.

    Unless a government is paying you to run a private prison there.

    • Uriel238 [all pronouns]@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      51 minutes ago

      The point of manned missions and colonies now is proof of concept for the expansion of human civilization to other worlds, but yes, that’s not a private for profit endeavor but a public interest one.

      That said, the research and development done for the Apollo moon shots returned to the economy $14 for every one dollar spent, so it was absolutely a sound investment. Also, those patents were sold to the US government for a dollar each (at most), and so the technology gained like microcircuitry and memory foam, are public domain.

      ( RANT: The public domain, the creation of a robust one is – according to the Constitution of the United States – the very purpose of the whole temporary monopoly system that is the foundation of intellectual property law.)