Genrawir

Do tell. a quick search didn't return anything too salacious.

Then the slavery would be a much bigger piece though, so this meme really makes no sense at all

That's just how research works most of the time. The experimental setup required to build a working prototype and prove the initial hypothesis is always going to be larger and more complex than a mass market appliance. If that appliance ever gets built depends on a huge number of factors too. If the process scales as expected, how complex the device is to produce and if a company thinks that it can make money on it. The researchers, meanwhile, are probably more worried about their next grant funding.

I was wondering the same thing before reading the article. This is for a 28 year mission, and doesn't include setting up the base, or power and water supply.