Re: The Economic Development of the Moon

Alex Terrell <alexterrell@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
:
:Imagine this scenario: 2020, and NASA's first six month long mission
:is prospecting. They visit aan old impact site, and find some metal
:fragments with 10% platinum group metals. A quick analysis of the site
:provides an estimate of 1,000 tons of PGMs mixed in with about 10
:million tons of copper, iron, nickel and related metals scattered over
:a few km2.
:
:What would happen then?
:
:Earth prices might fall somewhat, but I suspect lunar exploration
:might speed up somewhat.
:

Too expensive to retrieve. There's be no appreciable market effects
here on Earth. With any luck, this would help provide a driver to
lower transport costs, but even that is the tip of the iceberg.

How are you going to do lunar mining? Lots of technology development
and testing necessary before any of that become reasonably feasible.


--
"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable
man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore,
all progress depends on the unreasonable man."
--George Bernard Shaw
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: The Economic Development of the Moon
    ... They visit aan old impact site, ... :>:fragments with 10% platinum group metals. ... while I start from our current reality and postulate things that might ... "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; ...
    (sci.space.policy)
  • Re: The Economic Development of the Moon
    ... They visit aan old impact site, ... :fragments with 10% platinum group metals. ... :Earth prices might fall somewhat, ... "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; ...
    (sci.space.policy)
  • Re: The Economic Development of the Moon
    ... They visit aan old impact site, ... :fragments with 10% platinum group metals. ... :Earth prices might fall somewhat, but I suspect lunar exploration ...
    (sci.space.policy)
  • Re: The Economic Development of the Moon
    ... They visit aan old impact site, ... :>:fragments with 10% platinum group metals. ... but I suspect lunar exploration ... NONE of the technology you need for such an enterprise has been ...
    (sci.space.policy)