Make the higher level badges possible

I'm not asking for easy just possible

for example

planet cracker badge is 1000 million

I would have to mine 24/7 for 100 years and deliver it all to a station

I kind of agree. That badge is not realistically achievable in the lifetime of this game or any of its users. Having an unattainable badge is pointless.

An alternative would be to lower it by a 10th or more, and make it a community goal/badge. People who have reached a certain mining badge can enroll and work towards it together. If they cross a certain amount mined, they become eligible for the badge once everyone finishes it.

"This player was part of a community mining effort that collectively mined and sold 50m units of ore" or something along the lines along with how much the individual player contributed.

The idea behind the high-end mining badges was that, eventually, we would introduce capship and fleet-mining that might be at a scale where these kinds of things would become achievable. In the meantime, it would be kind of this wacky "out there" goal. Basically a "herald of things to come", was the thinking.

The problem was that the mining system and economy, as they were implemented, ended up having too many problems with, well, exploitability and imbalance issues. Hence the proposed new mining system, among other things. (A full discussion of "what went awry" is a bit beyond-scope for this thread).

I recognize that some of the existing goals seem nonsensical in the context of what's currently available. I'm not sure that I'm going to actually lower those goals, though, but I understand where you're coming from. We could certainly add more badges in-between as well.

adding more badges in-between sounds good and its (low hanging fruit)