Moon mining: want to invest in the final frontier?

Reuters ^ | 21 NOV 2001 23:30 | Jeremy Smith

[Clara Lou]

Question: If tons and tons and tons of minerals and ore were mined from the moon and removed to Earth, wouldn't it alter the moon's orbit over time?

[Cincinatus' Wife]

If tons and tons and tons of minerals and ore were mined from the moon and removed to Earth, wouldn't it alter the moon's orbit over time?

No.

[CommiesOut]

I'd be happy if they figure out first what to do with terrorists and why they hate us.

[Clara Lou]

Cool! (Why not?)

[Cuttnhorse]

For some reason this story is based on the eroneous assumption that the minerals listed are in short supply on earth. Not so...just look at commodity prices for copper, tungsten, gold, etc. There are PLENTY of reserves right here on earth of every commodity listed.
If anyone thinks this is a worthy investment, please call me first...I have some diamond claims in southern Nevada that we should talk about!!

[Cuttnhorse]

For some reason this story is based on the eroneous assumption that the minerals listed are in short supply on earth. Not so...just look at commodity prices for copper, tungsten, gold, etc. There are PLENTY of reserves right here on earth of every commodity listed.
If anyone thinks this is a worthy investment, please call me first...I have some diamond claims in southern Nevada that we should talk about!!

[monocle]

A mineral deposit becomes an ore when the mineral can be mined, recovered and refined in an economical fashion.

[Brett66]

Mining for the sake of mining is a losing proposition. Mining for the sake of building hotels, large solar cell farms etc. would work. It's a catch-22. We won't build those things on the moon because there is no demand for it. There is no demand for it because there's noone there that needs it. There's noone there because there's no hotels etc. on the surface.

One way to break this catch-22 is to start up a lunar hotel. The only way a lunar hotel will be profitable will be with much cheaper launch costs. The Russians already launch payloads into orbit for about $600/lb. This is sufficient to enable construction of a hotel and maintain a potential profit.

Because of various laws, we'll have to wait until a private American or European launch company can offer launch costs in this range. I think there will be several companies that will achieve sub-$1000/lb. launch costs within 5 years.

NASA has no interest in such activities so they will not be involved, but that's a good thing. We can't afford a $100 billion lunar base that would keep out civilians. You build a colony/city with NON astronauts.