What I’m writing here is information I gleaned as a newly minted engineer from thirty years ago sitting in on design reviews for equipment designed to go into space and/or on planes where weight and power density where the paramount decision factors. There was always an ordinary substitute material. The problem was weight or power density. If you’re designing a motor in a car that’s not optimized for, say, racing, then weight is not a factor.
NASA has developed motor designs that are significantly more efficient than what I learned about in college. I don’t know if those designs require unobtainium or not. My guess is, even if they do that there’s a workaround.
China made a serious mistake while Trump was president. They attempted to use their stranglehold on “rare” Earth metals as blackmail. Trump husbanded the reopening of a mine out west that could have provided all of our military needs. It was about to open despite the local EPA when he left office. I haven’t heard anything about it since.
It was about to open despite the local EPA when he left office. I haven’t heard anything about it since.
Her company is ahead of the game, in the sense that the concessions aren’t on tribal lands, which reduces the risk of a fight with progressive interests that don’t want mining in these areas. But even so, says Sanderson, permitting will probably take at least six years, and only then can production ramp up over the course of many more. “We desperately need a fast track for the production of these crucial resources at home,” she says.
A lot of what Trump did in many areas is started and in process.
An interesting one is here:
https://news.yahoo.com/thousands-inmates-move-salvadoran-mega-175737560.html
Do research, the prison is Trump making the deal...........
Looks like the Mountain Pass Mine is still active and rebuilding the ore processing part of the operation that had been outsourced to China... at least as of one year ago.