European Space Agency reveals plan that could spark a new space race - Mine the Moon

Plans for a European base on the moon have taken a major step forward.

The European Space Agency revealed it has signed up rocket maker ArianeGroup to develop plans for a moon base that could be used to mine material from the lunar surface.

The project will 'examine the possibility of going to the Moon before 2025 and starting to work there' - and could trigger a new space race as countries rush to harness lunar resources.

The one-year contract aims to eventually mine regolith on the lunar surface.

'As ESA and other agencies prepare to send humans back to the Moon – this time to stay – technologies that make use of materials available in space (in-situ resource utilisation) are seen as key to sustainability, and a stepping stone in humankind's adventure to Mars and farther into the Solar System,' the space agency said.

'In the longer term, resources in space may even be used on Earth.'

'Regolith is an ore from which it is possible to extract water and oxygen, thus enabling an independent human presence on the Moon to be envisaged, capable of producing the fuel needed for more distant exploratory missions, ESA says.

Europe wants to mine the moon by 2025: European Space Agency reveals plan that could spark a new space race

ESA is working with architects Foster+Partners, they are testing to see if they can use lunar soil to 3D print moon bases.

Now that many countries are making plans to go to the moon. Maybe this will start a new space race to put a human presence on the moon. There should already be one there now, better late than never I guess.

i would volontier for that one if they can figure out how to smoke in the spacesuit,no mods dont delete i really would

Now, I could see that using a 3d printer to print moon bases would be a good way of building them. If they can use available elements there and just haul the cement/catalyst there it would actually work pretty good. I am sure that they could get a mason to go lay blocks up there, but how would you get the blocks up there and would the mortar dry?

a reply to: bob77

There is a spacesuit attachment for that. It is vape based though, no open flame around all that O2.

a reply to: rickymouse

Maybe Augustus would volunteer. I am sure a master mason like him could figure it out.

a reply to: rickymouse

A lot of the 3D dwellings are printed directly. They don't print bricks and build the base. They use the soil to print a complete base.

Everyone will probably seek a location on the far side, so it will not be so easy to see what they are up too.
Perhaps we should all sign a treaty to keep everything except deep space astronomy, on the side facing Earth.

Moon resources are common property and if used it for peaceful purposes only.. states the Moon agreement made decades ago

The Moon Agreement was considered and elaborated by the Legal Subcommittee from 1972 to 1979. The Agreement was adopted by the General Assembly in 1979 in resolution 34/68. It was not until June 1984, however, that the fifth country, Austria, ratified the Agreement, allowing it to enter into force in July 1984. The Agreement reaffirms and elaborates on many of the provisions of the Outer Space Treaty as applied to the Moon and other celestial bodies, providing that those bodies should be used exclusively for peaceful purposes, that their environments should not be disrupted, that the United Nations should be informed of the location and purpose of any station established on those bodies. In addition, the Agreement provides that the Moon and its natural resources are the common heritage of mankind and that an international regime should be established to govern the exploitation of such resources when such exploitation is about to become feasible.

United Nations

So space race is out of the line as any race in the past has brought conficts between the nations. Moon won´t be any different.

In reading politics here. This is just another way that the ESA is keeping the French-run ArianeGroup in the rocket business. Am I overly cynical? I think not.

a reply to: dollukka

UN resolutions are more what you'd call 'guidelines' than actual rules

a reply to: LookingAtMars

Maybe exactly what the world needs. A new project for everyone to participate and an important stepping stone on the way to Mars. Overcoming Earth gravity takes a lot of fuel. But how they'd go on and refuel those rockets without landing, I don't know. That stuff isn't very stable so I'd think it's preferrable if it's standing still, besides the only one working on Mars rockets is SpaceX, not?
We just had two ships burning up because of refueling and they were only slightly moving on water...
The moon needs to be an Earth project.

About damn time.

a reply to: LookingAtMars

I have grave concerns about this. A moonbase sounds like a grand idea, but careful, extensive studies need to be done on the moon, to ensure that removing material from it, redistributing it, changing the physical characteristics of it, will not adversely effect its orbit around our planet, not just in a few, or a hundred years, but over thousands of years. If there is a chance that changing the displacement of material on the moon, could affect its orbit negatively over even a grand scale of time like a millennia, we need to reconsider it, or at the very least, limit the amount of resources we use from there, to ensure the maximum amount of time that the moons orbit remains at least as stable as it is now. We have to live on Earth at the moment, and until it is IMPOSSIBLE to live on Earth and we have already established significant colonisation of other planets, we need to maintain the situations which permit that life to continue. Ensuring that we do not damage the delicate interplay between our planet and the orbiting body that is responsible largely speaking for the tidal forces that drive our oceans flow, and has effects on pretty much everything else as a result, is of PARAMOUNT importance therefore, because screwing with that balance before we have at least 80% of our species living elsewhere, would be tantamount to genocidal.

originally posted by: LookingAtMars
Maybe Augustus would volunteer. I am sure a master mason like him could figure it out.

Been there, our secret Nazi moon base is plush.

a reply to: LookingAtMars

Won't happen look how long it took to build the ISS, by 2125 they might have a chance.

a reply to: TrueBrit

It looks like they are looking at mining regolith for water and oxygen for fuel. I can't see it ever being anywhere near economic to take any significant amount of mass off Moon. There is nothing on the Moon that we don't have on Earth (apart from Helium 3) anyway so it's not as if anyone will be quarrying millions of tons of rock and shipping it off to earth.

Mining resources like water and O2 to save the expense of shipping it there from Earth to help maintain small colonies makes sense to me - no cause for fear. Think Space 1999. Actually, come to think of it, that did not turn out so good for the Moon.

The next step to a new ISS, or even a sustainable moon base, will require a different way to get things into orbit cheaper and more effectively. My money is on the increasing commercialisation of space to bring down the cost of getting things into orbit, thus enabling the components of a moon base to be assembled, or collected in an affordable way.

Give it a few years and there will be a plethora of reusable vehicles in the game, alongside cheaper one-shot rockets. SpaceX and Skylon are amongst those that is forming an innovative market. Traditional launchers like Ariane are a dead-end.

a reply to: paraphi

What about a Space Elevator?

Grand plans like that are all fine and dandy, but I'm not gonna be holding my breath until we actually land humans on the Moon again.

Another big step would have to be installing some sort of permanent or semi-permanent structure there, with equipment that would work autonomosly or by commands from earth. Not sure we could manage this within 5 years.

About the time manned travel looks to be getting commonplace I suspect the Galactic community will put an end to it.
Were I a nearby interstellar resident I would be scared sh#&*+"" at the prospect of a bunch of brutally savidge monkeys armed with nukes cruising my airspace.