It's Official: In 2017, We Begin Mining the Moon

Finally going to happen, let's hope it goes well.

a reply to: crazyewok

unless we bring too much down, and change its mass....

Far fetched, but still a danger

a reply to: Burnitalldown

From what I remember, only countries signed the treaty (naturally), so companies from those countries have to follow the rules of that treaty, so each country has to verify the companies' claims, otherwise they could be breaking the treaty and the country (not the company) would be held responsible for it.

2017? LOL no... just no... It will be 50-100 years before we make mining anything in space realistic.... 2017... lol....

originally posted by: ArMaP
a reply to: Burnitalldown

From what I remember, only countries signed the treaty (naturally), so companies from those countries have to follow the rules of that treaty, so each country has to verify the companies' claims, otherwise they could be breaking the treaty and the country (not the company) would be held responsible for it.

Thank you for the clarification. That makes more sense.

a reply to: Burnitalldown

Why can't people just leave sh1t alone?

I'm not sure how I missed it on the first read through, but apparently Moon Express is claiming that the mission cost for the initial robot landing can be done for just 10 million dollars. I'd be interested to see how that could be.

a reply to: Burnitalldown

Look! There is absolutely no way that mining of the Moon is feasible at the current rate of technology of every technology that it would take to make that "dream" possible. What sort of huge rockets are going to be needed to haul the mining equipment (for heaven's sake) to the Moon, and then what sort of huge rockets are going to be needed to return tons of mined material either in a raw state or refined to nicely to land on earth and be marketed at an astronomical price. But would be that important or critical to earth's manufacturing? None of it is currently possible except in wild dreams.

What they are doing is probably two things: Get us acquainted with mining the Moon as they have been working on us to get acquainted with manned flights to Mars when such is equally insane at this point. Behind those concepts that we have been given is the need to accept and give our tax dollars for such serious work, but the methodology will be done with different lifters than pure rockets. The real transportation devices will be exotic stuff taken from UFO physics not conventional aerospace industries work with aircraft and rockets.

As for what they would mine on the Moon, that is a red herring. What they really want to do is to send shipments to the Moon of radioactive wastes from homeland nuke plants. Wait for the announcement, it will be slipped to us in slanted terms.

originally posted by: Aliensun
a reply to: Burnitalldown

Look! There is absolutely no way that mining of the Moon is feasible at the current rate of technology of every technology that it would take to make that "dream" possible. What sort of huge rockets are going to be needed to haul the mining equipment (for heaven's sake) to the Moon, and then what sort of huge rockets are going to be needed to return tons of mined material either in a raw state or refined to nicely to land on earth and be marketed at an astronomical price. But would be that important or critical to earth's manufacturing? None of it is currently possible except in wild dreams.

What they are doing is probably two things: Get us acquainted with mining the Moon as they have been working on us to get acquainted with manned flights to Mars when such is equally insane at this point. Behind those concepts that we have been given is the need to accept and give our tax dollars for such serious work, but the methodology will be done with different lifters than pure rockets. The real transportation devices will be exotic stuff taken from UFO physics not conventional aerospace industries work with aircraft and rockets.

As for what they would mine on the Moon, that is a red herring. What they really want to do is to send shipments to the Moon of radioactive wastes from homeland nuke plants. Wait for the announcement, it will be slipped to us in slanted terms.

The thought had crossed my mind that the logistics of such a mining endeavor would be astronomical (heh heh.) But barring that and taking the article at face value, it's still interesting that they claim that they can deliver a moderately sized robot payload for only 10 million bucks (best case scenario, I am assuming.)

Initially, my greatest concern was less on the feasibility of the mining, though I admit I didn't think as critically as you did, and more on how the POTUS believes he can make a ruling like: private companies can claim ownership of whatever they can take from the moon. Which actually lends itself nicely to your theory of waste dumping. If the ability to claim what they're taking from the moon is upheld, it could eventually take the next step which would be allowing private companies to claim ownership of moon territories for dumping, and then who knows. A very slippery slope, I know, my point being that perhaps such rulings should be made after healthy and constructive discussion.

If they find commercial practical purposes for the moon then I think tha'ts the real beginning of the space age. That's what we've needed--a compelling reason. It's so much easier to be complacent and stay on Earth. This is our natural environment. It's easier. The moon? Is alien and hostile and extremely expensive to visit. So the resuilt is our instincts keep us here--for the moment.

Neil deGrasse Tyson was right when he stated we primarily went to the Moon because of the Soviet Union--because of the real threat of war. When we get our priorities straight and find a good reason, nothing will stop us. None of this going to the moon and then not going back for 40+ years. It's the same with exercise. NOTHING beats running from a real lion. Granted, you don't want to be running from a real lion. But these natural urges which arise from primal forces of nature are integral to a genuine space age and cannot be reproduced with fake hollow counterparts. That's what it was with Apollo. It was effective at getting us there but it was hollow.

Maybe technolgy and planing are finally catching up to make long planned but unfeasible goals now possible. We can hope? And hope too that it's for the best and will solve many interconnecting problems. Neil deGrass Tyson is also right when he states the longterm future is hard to predcit because so many things intereconnect to produce innovation. Thus, even if we produce a good idea, good enough to keep us there on the moon, who knows what else it will do here on Earth?

a reply to: blend57

The moon isnt a fragile egg.

Its 7.34767309 × 10 powe 19 tons.

You could mine it for a million years and not effect is mass significantly.

If we can mine the earth and not throw it out of the suns orbit, the moons safe.

originally posted by: tadaman
a reply to: crazyewok

unless we bring too much down, and change its mass....

Far fetched, but still a danger

So far fetched it impossible.

The moon is waaaaaaaay to big.

a reply to: Orionx2

I'm not getting you to re-furbish my house :/

as estimates go, you are light years out, sure 50 years ago we started journeying into space but we only had 2 horses at the start
of that race, with private firms now able to do this now and not just secret governments a true space race will now be on, this is a
major step on our evolutionary path!

on a side note: they really should do rigorous risk assessments before taking mass off of the big white thing in the night sky....

Most of the space dust reaching earth gets burnt up in the atmosphere, no so with the moon, so I think the moon must be getting heavier over time, so refined metal weight being shipped from the moon is replaced in weight by space dust.
Read some where 100 tons of space dust hits the earth every day? Any one know for sure?

a reply to: pikestaff

good point...... maybe we need to mine the moon, to create a better climate on the Earth.......... possibly with our moon constantly gaining mass then that would change our weather systems/tides etc mmmm.. i can feel a conspiracy theory coming on!

a reply to: Burnitalldown

Obama apparently had also stated that private companies engaged in moon activities would be able to keep/claim ownership of anything they decide to take. I personally find that a little worrying. Thoughts?

I find it even more worrying that any company at all would need the US' permission to begin with

originally posted by: Aliensun
Look! There is absolutely no way that mining of the Moon is feasible at the current rate of technology of every technology that it would take to make that "dream" possible. What sort of huge rockets are going to be needed to haul the mining equipment (for heaven's sake) to the Moon, and then what sort of huge rockets are going to be needed to return tons of mined material either in a raw state or refined to nicely to land on earth and be marketed at an astronomical price.

They only need to send equipment that is capable of mining the materials and, with those, build more powerful equipments that are capable of mining more and build even more powerful equipments.

The mined materials can be used on the Moon for whatever they want, there's no real need to bring them back if they have a use there.

originally posted by: TheConstruKctionofLight
I find it even more worrying that any company at all would need the US' permission to begin with

Any US private organisation needs the US government's permission, in the same way any organisation from any other country that signed the Outer Space Treaty needs that country's government permission.

Article VI says:

States Parties to the Treaty shall bear international responsibility for national activities in outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, whether such activities are carried on by governmental agencies or by non-governmental entities, and for assuring that national activities are carried out in conformity with the provisions set forth in the present Treaty. The activities of non-governmental entities in outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, shall require authorization and continuing supervision by the appropriate State Party to the Treaty. When activities are carried on in outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, by an international organization, responsibility for compliance with this Treaty shall be borne both by the international organization and by the States Parties to the Treaty participating in such organization.

The US is one of the countries that is a party to the treaty.

crazyewok

I never said anything about throwing it out of orbit (although the video does state what would happen if we have no moon) I just said that it is pivotal to our survival and I wouldn't mess with it...sorry if you misunderstood my previous post..

thanks,
blend57

a reply to: TheConstruKctionofLight

It could be because Moon Express is an American company so felt they needed permission , as Naveen Jain says in the video I posted on page 1 there was no agency set up to give permission before they approached the FAA.

I doubt China sought permission before they sent the Jade Rabbit moon rover up there.