Moon mining gains momentum as private companies plan for a lunar economy
Moon mining gains momentum as private companies plan for a lunar economy
"This is now becoming so real."
"This is now becoming so real."
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Just can't see anything like this happening until there's not just workable fusion power generation, but portable versions of that technology.... which at this rate and given the challenges currently facing humanity, pretty doubtful that will ever occur. The costs of equipment delivery, resupply, material recovery and transport would be literally astronomical. There's just no way it makes money.
Why fusion ? A portable fission reactor could do the job.
What would we be mining for that could possibly necessitate and justify the costs of transport (equipment and materials) there and back? Almost any resource would be cheaper to mine on Earth, and the only exceptions would still be so rare as to require gigantic energy inputs.
The advantage to any space-based mining is not to directly benefit industry on Earth, but to help real manufacturing and other industrial scale operations in space. Doing that could lead to massive benefits for ground-based society, especially if we can automate so scaling to use resources beyond the Earth-Moon system became practical.
Sounds a little like starting a pot for chicken stock because you got an invite to an easter egg hunt.
Resource extraction on earth is super dirty and exploitative, so I'm all for automating it and moving it to space as soon as it's commercially viable.
@uphillbothways Couldn't it be a staging ground, not just for lunar mining, but also asteroid mining?
Orbiting or landing on the moon seems like an unnecessary delta-v tollbooth if the eventual target is asteroid mining. Why would you slow down to get to the moon if you eventually have to speed back up to get out to the asteroid belt?
Why would you “slow down to get to the moon” when you started there?
Helium-3; copious amounts in the lunar crust - but it's filtered out by our atmosphere.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_resources#Helium-3
"Materials on the Moon's surface contain helium-3 at concentrations estimated between 1.4 and 15 parts per billion (ppb) in sunlit areas,[1][61][62] and may contain concentrations as much as 50 ppb in permanently shadowed regions.[63] For comparison, helium-3 in the Earth's atmosphere occurs at 7.2 parts per trillion (ppt)."
Stretching the use of the word copious here... Helium 3 is specifically what I was thinking of when I said "the only exceptions would still be so rare as to require gigantic energy inputs."... Also, utilizing it would require fusion technology we don't have yet.
Listen, going to the moon and space travel is neat and all... There's just no way space mining makes money with current tech.
There are several institutes that differ from your opinion on abundance and profitability. There is an estimated millions of tons of helium-3 in the lunar surface at just a few meters down and it's estimated that just 25 tons would suffice to fuel the US power consumption for a year, and 200 ton for global needs.
Regardless of helium-3, establishing the infrastructure will allow for other mining as well. Platinum and other rare earth metals. Whoever does it first is going to make a butt load of money.
I hope so too. I just want to see some space faring progress in my lifetime. I missed the boat and am too dumb to contribute, but I can hope greed can bridge the gap where basic human progress fails to meet expansionist ideals. If it has to begin on the backs of investor money, at least it gets the ball rolling.