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Mining Moon Ice: Prospecting Plans Starting to Take Shape
Space.com ^ | July 13, 2018 04:04pm ET | Leonard David,

Posted on 07/15/2018 7:36:12 PM PDT by BenLurkin

A diverse range of scientists, engineers and mining technologists have begun blueprinting what hardware and missions are required to explore and establish a prospecting campaign for water ice at the poles of Earth's moon. 

Why have they warmed up to ultra-cold lunar ice? Water ice can be converted to oxygen, liquid water and rocket fuel. Exploiting the stores of this resource — which is thought to be abundant within permanently shadowed polar craters on the moon — could help pioneers survive and thrive on the moon, and help entrepreneurs turn a profit. 

For example, United Launch Alliance is maintaining its $3,000-per-kilogram ($1,360 per lb.) offer, first made in 2016, for moon-derived propellant delivered to low Earth orbit. The satellite communications industry could well be the first market for space resources.

Scientists, engineers and exploration advocates are keen to characterize lunar ice as an economic resource. To do so, however, more data is needed about lunar ice deposits, its distribution, concentration, quantity, disposition, depth, geotechnical properties and any other characteristics necessary to design and develop extraction and processing systems.

That said, the biggest uncertainty is still the form of the lunar ice. The method used for mining this resource depends on what form it is in. 

Scientists, engineers and exploration advocates are keen to characterize lunar ice as an economic resource. To do so, however, more data is needed about lunar ice deposits, its distribution, concentration, quantity, disposition, depth, geotechnical properties and any other characteristics necessary to design and develop extraction and processing systems.

(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...


TOPICS: Astronomy
KEYWORDS: ice; moon; moonice
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To: raiderboy

Where do you get your facts? Do you have your own satellite orbiting the moon, gathering information? If so then you’re right—we don’t need NASA.


21 posted on 07/15/2018 8:29:28 PM PDT by Telepathic Intruder
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To: BenLurkin

What about the Helium 3?

Didn’t any of those Rocket Scientists see the Movie “Moon”?


22 posted on 07/15/2018 8:33:12 PM PDT by Kickass Conservative (The way Liberals carry on about Deportation, you would think "Mexico" was Spanish for "Auschwitz".)
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To: BenLurkin

.
What a joke!

Did someone get a government grant to think this fiasco up?

Will they be selling ice to eskimos?


23 posted on 07/15/2018 8:36:44 PM PDT by editor-surveyor (Freepers: Not as smart as I'd hoped they'd be)
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To: raiderboy

.
>> “there is absolutely NO moon ice. ZIP. This is all a hoax to get your money.” <<

Shhh!


24 posted on 07/15/2018 8:39:19 PM PDT by editor-surveyor (Freepers: Not as smart as I'd hoped they'd be)
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To: BenLurkin

Well, climate change is working so well since the arctic has had very little summer, so far. And, at the station Vostok in the antarctic, there has been the coldest temp. ever recorded. These guys have to do something to get uncle sugar to pony up more money for ‘moonbat’ ideas.


25 posted on 07/15/2018 8:40:06 PM PDT by Parmy
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To: Telepathic Intruder

.
We definitely don’t need NASA!

They do nothing but scam us with global warming schemes.


26 posted on 07/15/2018 8:41:02 PM PDT by editor-surveyor (Freepers: Not as smart as I'd hoped they'd be)
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To: Parmy

.
>> “These guys have to do something to get uncle sugar to pony up more money for ‘moonbat’ ideas.” <<

That is their prime function!


27 posted on 07/15/2018 8:42:19 PM PDT by editor-surveyor (Freepers: Not as smart as I'd hoped they'd be)
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To: BenLurkin

That may not go over too well with the space aliens’ reportedly long established operations on the moon. Maybe we can mask our real intentions by telling them we’re selling the ice to our Eskimos.


28 posted on 07/15/2018 8:44:02 PM PDT by Tucker39 ("It is impossible to rightly govern a nation without God and the Bible." George Washington)
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To: editor-surveyor

We need something that NASA was originally designed to do—explore space. The future doesn’t belong to those who let others take the lead. I don’t want America to eventually become a backwater compared to China.


29 posted on 07/15/2018 8:47:34 PM PDT by Telepathic Intruder
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To: BenLurkin

Ice in of itself has zero energy to offer as a propellant in rocket fuel. It is the ingredient that can be made into rocket fuel. To do this requires an energy source. The two options are galvanic solar cells or a nuclear reactor. This will be an engineering and heavy lift to the moon nightmare. This will not happen in our lifetimes. When cheap payload to the Moon is possible it may happen. I personally doubt it. When and if we can achieve cheap payload to the moon we no longer need to do it. Everything that we put on the moon needs to climb out of its gravity well also to leave.

The concept of ice on the moon is good for a scientific station on the moon. It would make things cheaper and simpler. You will still need a small nuclear reactor or galvanic cells.

Forget the moon as a base of operations beyond the moon.


30 posted on 07/15/2018 8:49:39 PM PDT by cpdiii (Cane Cutter, Roughneck, Geologist, Pilot, Pharmacist: THE CONSTITUTION IS WORTH DYING FOR!)
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To: Tucker39

Don’t need Space-kimos. We already have a couple space-cases.


31 posted on 07/15/2018 8:50:17 PM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both.)
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To: cpdiii

I forgot to add that robotic missions to the moon can do great science at a fraction of the cost of a man on the moon. Case in point is our rovers on Mars.


32 posted on 07/15/2018 8:53:33 PM PDT by cpdiii (Cane Cutter, Roughneck, Geologist, Pilot, Pharmacist: THE CONSTITUTION IS WORTH DYING FOR!)
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To: Telepathic Intruder; raiderboy

Don’t bother with him. He is an idiot.


33 posted on 07/15/2018 9:15:49 PM PDT by LesbianThespianGymnasticMidget (TRUMP TRAIN !!! Get the hell out of the way if you are not on yet because we don't stop for idiots)
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To: raiderboy

Dude, you are not the brightest “tool” in the marque nor the sharpest “bulb” in the shed.

The Atlantians riding Dinosaurs had them fling ice up with their tails from Antarctica 5000 years ago.

Everyone knows that.


34 posted on 07/15/2018 9:20:40 PM PDT by LesbianThespianGymnasticMidget (TRUMP TRAIN !!! Get the hell out of the way if you are not on yet because we don't stop for idiots)
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To: BenLurkin

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress!
Robert Heinlein


35 posted on 07/15/2018 9:39:19 PM PDT by Panzerlied ("We shall never surrender!")
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To: Telepathic Intruder

And a moon explorer is being sent soon by India to look for Helium3.

? Supposed to be some kind of atomic fuel of the future.

The commercial exploration of not-so-near space begins!


36 posted on 07/15/2018 9:40:41 PM PDT by Doctor DNA (This is not your grandfather's internet.)
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To: BenLurkin

I need to work for these companies. I need to be automating the testing of their software.


37 posted on 07/15/2018 9:42:21 PM PDT by Snowybear
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To: cpdiii

India is going to the moon to look for Helium3.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-26/the-quest-to-find-a-trillion-dollar-nuclear-fuel-on-the-moon

Might be start of something useful.


38 posted on 07/15/2018 9:47:32 PM PDT by Doctor DNA (This is not your grandfather's internet.)
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To: raiderboy

Why? Ganymede almost certainly contains 30x more H2O than all of Earth (water + ice). Titan, about 14x (just the liquid H2O), Callisto, about 4x, Europa, about 2x.

Why, again, would there not be (mostly underground) ice on Earth’s moon?


39 posted on 07/15/2018 9:56:36 PM PDT by Paul R.
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To: Jim 0216
"Mooning mine ice? Huh? What?"

I am thinking Moonie Shave Ice with flavors that shoot the Moon. It's outta this world!

40 posted on 07/15/2018 10:11:58 PM PDT by jonrick46 (/)
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