Moon mining gains momentum as private companies plan for a lunar economy::A number of entrepreneurial groups have shared their strategies to turn the moon into a hustle and bustle world of marketable services.
The difference is, there is no natural life to kill on the moon, and if it turns out to be possible, maybe even easier, to mine for necessary metals on the moon then Earth-side mining won’t be necessary
Also, being able to get resources on the moon without having to ship them there from Earth will make it much easier and cheaper to launch spaceships to the rest of the solar system.
Honestly I think a solar farm on the moon would be much better investing in at some point. I remember reading an article where a nation was experimenting with beaming energy down from orbit or some shit
I think the shipping costs between earth and moon are ridiculous. Moon manufacturing only makes sense for supplying moon bases and transportation to other planets.
Wasn’t the Moon’s gravity low enough that you could basically use electromagnetic cannons to launch payloads from the surface all the way out of lunar orbit?
In the absence of an athmosphere and with only 16.6% of Earth’s gravity, achieving orbit from the Moon isn’t simply “not as though” as doing so from Earth, it’s incredibly less so (maybe 100s of times, though I don’t really have the numbers so take it with a grain) - just compare the full size (including boosters) and fuel payload of the vehicle needed to put 3 people on the Moon and those of the vehicle needed to bring them back to Earth (granted, the first vehicle had to also carry the second one, plus food, water and air for the first part of the trip).
Being at the bottom of a 1G well and having to also overcome quite a lot of air drag to get out of it massivelly adds up to the energy needed to do so, both because the whole getting out of a gravity well thing is a logarithmic progression (as you need to spend fuel to haul up the fuel that’s going to be used higher u), so overcoming 6x the gravity doesn’t just mean using 6x the fuel, and on top of that there are the the losses due to drag in the lower athmosphere which for example severely limit initial launch speeds (as drag is directly proportional to velocity).
I don’t know anything about EM canons but between the moon having a relatively weak gravity well and being within Earth’s gravity well, I’d think any method would be much easier to use when it comes to transport to Earth
Ok so I did a small bit of research and found optimistic estimates from groups promoting this of $800kg. You can’t just throw shit at earth, you have to put it down safely. In reality what makes sense is manufacturing stuff that you then don’t have to bring up to the moon, or to mars, or anywhere else off of earth. You build it on the moon instead.
IDK $800/kg sounds pretty great compared getting from Earth into Earth orbit at $54,000/kg. Doing something like manufacturing and launching satellites would probably become pretty viable once it’s set up.
An airless desert impossible to reach for and with zero impact (even indirect) on the life of for 99.999% of people, with almost as much surface are as the whole of the Americas and which is entirelly devoid of life and always will be, is the last place you need to preserve.
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Ew. This sounds like massive public investment in space for massive private profits in space.
Looks like we’ll be at our Expanse style dystopia sooner than expected!
Rather expance style than say, the road
We must not allow capitalism to escape this planet
I’m sure the Chinese are just as interested in this.
The one place yet to be corrupted by capitalism:
SBACE
I can see the war for the moon coming over the horizon
I’ll believe it when I see it.
Do you want Morlocks? Because that’s how you get Morlocks.
It’s like we have learnt nothing, “let’s strip another celestial body of its minerals then fuck off onto the next when we have had our fill.”
The difference is, there is no natural life to kill on the moon, and if it turns out to be possible, maybe even easier, to mine for necessary metals on the moon then Earth-side mining won’t be necessary
Also, being able to get resources on the moon without having to ship them there from Earth will make it much easier and cheaper to launch spaceships to the rest of the solar system.
Pollute the moon all you want, better than earth.
Man I thought by 2023 I’d be taking my jetpack to my moon meetings not arguing over whether we should strip mine the damn place.
Well, if anything is going to get us there, and establish a permanent colony, it’s corporate interests.
Can’t wait for the first McDonald’s on the moon.
Given the way our political systems works, they’ll probably be selling air to workers who are pretty much slaves.
Honestly I think a solar farm on the moon would be much better investing in at some point. I remember reading an article where a nation was experimenting with beaming energy down from orbit or some shit
I think the shipping costs between earth and moon are ridiculous. Moon manufacturing only makes sense for supplying moon bases and transportation to other planets.
From Earth to the moon for sure, but once it’s established, from the moon to Earth isn’t as tough.
Wasn’t the Moon’s gravity low enough that you could basically use electromagnetic cannons to launch payloads from the surface all the way out of lunar orbit?
In the absence of an athmosphere and with only 16.6% of Earth’s gravity, achieving orbit from the Moon isn’t simply “not as though” as doing so from Earth, it’s incredibly less so (maybe 100s of times, though I don’t really have the numbers so take it with a grain) - just compare the full size (including boosters) and fuel payload of the vehicle needed to put 3 people on the Moon and those of the vehicle needed to bring them back to Earth (granted, the first vehicle had to also carry the second one, plus food, water and air for the first part of the trip).
Being at the bottom of a 1G well and having to also overcome quite a lot of air drag to get out of it massivelly adds up to the energy needed to do so, both because the whole getting out of a gravity well thing is a logarithmic progression (as you need to spend fuel to haul up the fuel that’s going to be used higher u), so overcoming 6x the gravity doesn’t just mean using 6x the fuel, and on top of that there are the the losses due to drag in the lower athmosphere which for example severely limit initial launch speeds (as drag is directly proportional to velocity).
I don’t know anything about EM canons but between the moon having a relatively weak gravity well and being within Earth’s gravity well, I’d think any method would be much easier to use when it comes to transport to Earth
Ok so I did a small bit of research and found optimistic estimates from groups promoting this of $800kg. You can’t just throw shit at earth, you have to put it down safely. In reality what makes sense is manufacturing stuff that you then don’t have to bring up to the moon, or to mars, or anywhere else off of earth. You build it on the moon instead.
IDK $800/kg sounds pretty great compared getting from Earth into Earth orbit at $54,000/kg. Doing something like manufacturing and launching satellites would probably become pretty viable once it’s set up.
Come on, they can just throw stuf down from the moon…
We should declare the moon like a national park (global park) and preserve it as is.
An airless desert impossible to reach for and with zero impact (even indirect) on the life of for 99.999% of people, with almost as much surface are as the whole of the Americas and which is entirelly devoid of life and always will be, is the last place you need to preserve.
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