That tech is unfortunately too far off at this point to be able to supply batteries to the surface of the earth in time to meet the demand from all the new electric vehicles we’re seeing.
0G Mining isn’t a solved problem either, but we have almost zero experience with controlled reentry of materials at that scale. We would need to manufacture heat shields in space in order to do it, which is a whole other can of worms.
Battery recycling is far easier than gasoline recycling
To give an otherwise unfunded project the chance to go to space, however slim, is worth far more than a tesla roadster with an astronaut mannequin, and costs far less. What was their satellite design going to do on earth?
The ballast could just as easily have been university student design team projects and he would have been doing a ton of good for the world, but instead he decided to waste all that fuel and a whole car for publicity. “Efficiency”.
Did you use your time at university to network and make lasting connections with people who will likely be more successful than you? Because that practically guarantees a job. If you kept your head down and did nothing of note except get a diploma, you wasted your time.
The issue isn’t whether we can mine space rocks, or even if we can bring back materials from space, it’s about doing it at scale and cost-effectively, soon enough for it to matter.