Race To Mine The Moon Heats Up

Foxnews.com ^ | 10/27/2011 | Loren Grush

[Pontiac]

If there is a profit to be made and we can get the government out of the way it is a whole new frontier. The

I agree. Government is not good at innovation.

To make a profit I think rockets will have to replaced by another method of lifting. Having to lift tons of fuel while lifting the payload is too close to lifting yourself by your own boot straps.

I see the use of a superconducting Mass Driver to accelerate payloads to escape velocity as the most practical at this time. But a Space Elevator may be doable in the future.

I just don’t see rockets ever being able to turn a profit transporting goods to and from space. The overhead is just too high.

[aruanan]

Not to rain on your parade but considering the astronomical cost of sending a pound of payload to the moon I can not see finding quantities of even the elusive Helium 3 on the moon being able to turn a profit.

Unless the cost of lifting mass in to orbit can be drastically cut I see no way of turning a profit mining the moon.

Even if you do cut the cost of achieving orbit, the first place to mine would be asteroids because then you would be able to negate the cost of escaping the Moons gravity.

Come on. Be honest. You didn't actually bother think through any of this before reflexively tossing off the above, did you? And all those folks with plans for mining the moon have taken into account costs on developing mining techniques and equipment, costs to operate it there, but have, except for you, completely overlooked costs to get it there and costs to get finished product back? You may as well make the same arguments about telecommunications satellites because they aren't bringing anything back at all, they're just there because of their position--oh, their value lies in what they enable us to do in spite of the costs to lift and operate them because of the unique nature of their position?

[FourtySeven]

It is probable that such considerations (cost of transportation) are being considered, but the specifics aren’t clear in the article. (it says probes to be sent to drill for “fuel” but the specifics aren’t clear how profit can be made. Of course, every private enterprise probably wouldn’t be too eager to explain in detail their strategy for making money)

[Pontiac]

And all those folks with plans for mining the moon have taken into account costs on developing mining techniques and equipment, costs to operate it there, but have, except for you, completely overlooked costs to get it there and costs to get finished product back?.

To the best of my knowledge no one currently working on commercial lifting rockets is looking to mine anything in space. (If you know of some one seriously working on space mining I would be interested to know who, how and what. Dreaming doesn’t count. )

Those working on commercial lifting are planning on doing exactly what government space agencies are doing lifting satellites, servicing satellites and one new thing namely space tourism.

Now for tourism lifting cost is not a problem because the market is overloaded with demand. The space companies can pretty much charge anything they want.

Since the private space companies are competing against government space agencies they can probably do it much cheaper. The real question is will the government agencies allow them to compete. After all running at a profit is something that governments are not required to do.