>>11073585Mercury is much smaller than that when compared to the sun, it’s also much smaller than Earth. If we remove all of Mercury’s iron it may have far reaching consequences on the other planets in Sol’s orbits, and may reduce the chance that interstellar slingshot-off-the-sun asteroids (which gain extra speed and are more dangerous if they hit us) will hit Mercury or alter existing and known asteroid trajectories that would otherwise never hit Earth to hit instead. Hollowing out the closest rock to the sun is unethical if it puts Earth at greater risk.
I’m assuming the technological capability to fully empty it of iron to build the fusion sphere of course, modern small scale mining (by comparison to sacrificing a planet) would be completely ethical short of intelligent natives living there shaking sticks at us, though.
