Re: The Economic Development of the Moon

On 19 Nov, 18:38, Fred J. McCall <fmcc...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Alex Terrell <alexterr...@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.

It would never pay back to go to the moon just for this, but if at the
astronaut's feet?

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

Mining an M-type impactor might be relatively easy. There are no
compounds so in theory no chemistry to worry about. Lots of heat
needed, but that's easy to get on the lunar surface.
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: The Economic Development of the Moon
    ... They visit aan old impact site, ... :fragments with 10% platinum group metals. ... but I suspect lunar exploration ... "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. ... but I suspect lunar exploration ... NONE of the technology you need for such an enterprise has been ...
    (sci.space.policy)
  • 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)