a.) Quite possibly it did, but that workforce and capital just went on to do other things.
b.) Would you want your supply of, say, dirt-cheap steel, to be at the mercy of a foreign government? Plus, a giant space whatsit is useful for other things - there are current-day marketed pharmaceuticals, I understand, that have to be cooked up in freefall.
c.) Gundam's answer. They're going into space habitats. Maybe I was wrong about what the understructure of the Venusian Castles is made out of - maybe they're constructed from conventional steel girderwork techniques.
d.) If the difference in shipping costs between low orbit and the moon is enough to cover Rockhounds' bill, then they could be scraping their surfaces for He-3. Even with the Castles, by my estimate, shipping between 25 and 50 GW each, they're still only meeting a tiny fraction of Earthside civilization's energy needs. Fusion power is definitely a market where a tiny pinch of carefully-monitored 'wave would make a disproportionate amount of difference.
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"I'm terribly sorry, but I have to kill you quite horribly now."
b.) Would you want your supply of, say, dirt-cheap steel, to be at the mercy of a foreign government? Plus, a giant space whatsit is useful for other things - there are current-day marketed pharmaceuticals, I understand, that have to be cooked up in freefall.
c.) Gundam's answer. They're going into space habitats. Maybe I was wrong about what the understructure of the Venusian Castles is made out of - maybe they're constructed from conventional steel girderwork techniques.
d.) If the difference in shipping costs between low orbit and the moon is enough to cover Rockhounds' bill, then they could be scraping their surfaces for He-3. Even with the Castles, by my estimate, shipping between 25 and 50 GW each, they're still only meeting a tiny fraction of Earthside civilization's energy needs. Fusion power is definitely a market where a tiny pinch of carefully-monitored 'wave would make a disproportionate amount of difference.
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"I'm terribly sorry, but I have to kill you quite horribly now."