Ross Douthat

It is energy.

But you theoretically can draw more energy from the sun in space than on Earth?

Yeah, I mean, my...

My core theory about space exploration has always been that you need some kind of commercial imperative woven in.

Like if you look at the age of discovery right here on Earth, it's not just people sailing into the unknown for the sake of human ambition, as important as that is.

It's also about colonization and settlement, but it's also about people looking for ways to make money.

And it seems like

Space needs that to sort of draw human energy upward on the scale that certainly your vision has in mind.

Are there resources on the moon that people would ever extract?

Can you imagine that happening?

In the world where there's a moon base, you would be essentially looking for things on the moon.

Tell me again, what is one thing you would mine from an asteroid?

And I'm just I know there's lots of possibilities, but just for a layman who's trying to picture a world where the dream of riches is propelling companies and people into space.

What's a concrete example?

Platinum.

OK, good.

That's a good example.

Perfect.

Um, so the platinum mines in the asteroid belt.

Yeah.