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Understood... but I'm not advocating orbital research and manufacturing simply for profit motives. The fact is that taking advantage of the microgravity, near-vacuum and near-zero temperatures inherent in orbital access should result in better materials, more efficient electronics and other systems, and new ways of creating compounds that will hopefully allow us to use less power in their manufacture.
This includes more efficient compounds and designs for solar cells, possibly the single best tool we have to fight global warming. Orbital resources may bring us a way to manufacture improved, more efficient cells, cutting our reliance on oil and coal even more.
There may be mixed reasons to go to the Moon, and practically no practical reasons to go any further. But there are great reasons to get into orbit.
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