So, I've had this rough idea for a science-fiction novel that's really my piss-take on corporate space exploration and Elon Musk in particular.

The villain of the piece, whom I'll just call "Eli Mellon" for now until I can think of something a little less obvious, is a young and daring corporate raider who comes up with an elaborate plan to corner the world market in helium. Mellon cooks up a scheme to fund a highly publicized scientific expedition to Jupiter, a mission that he claims will prove that corporate space companies like his aren't just in the business for exploitation. In fact the scientific mission is a cover, and Mellon's real plan is to set up helium mining stations around Jupiter and seize as much control of the planet's resources, by "right of possession", as he can before anyone else gets there. The scientific team only finds out once they get to the planet that Mellon's commitment to scientific exploration is paper-thin and all Mellon really is a bit of material he can spread around in the popular scientific press.

This expedition is coördinated with other machinations back on Earth designed to ease Mellon's takeover and maximize the payoff from the venture. One idea I had was that Mellon also had a controlling interest in some industry that uses a _lot_ of helium, so one of his plans is to drive up demand for the substance and combat legislative efforts to conserve helium (cf. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium#Conservation_advocates). Because the chief source for helium is natural gas, I think it would interesting if Mellon used trumped-up "greenwashing" as a way to hurt domestic production of helium, getting punitive taxation imposed perhaps on helium mining back home so that his space-based mining operation can be more competitive.

@kara I always thought the American helium supply came from nuclear power. Huh.