[ExI] Moooon

[Samantha Atkins]

On 07/20/2011 03:54 PM, Damien Broderick wrote:
> On 7/20/2011 5:44 PM, Will Steinberg wrote:
>
>> Get on it, then!  Other people aren't going to do your work for you.
>
> Will, I'm pretty sure I've done a great deal more in the last 50 years 
> toward encouraging humanity's desire to extend our technology beyond 
> this planet than you have in what I assume is your fairly brief life 
> so far.

Thus far there is no compelling ROI, even across a decade or two, for 
exploitation of the moon.  At least I have not found a compelling case 
after looking into it for some time.  If you have one then let's hear 
it.  He3?  Nope, no fusion to use it and He3 is not in easy to mine 
local concentrations.  Other lunar mineral wealth shipped back to 
earth?  Nope, Clementine and other surveys show that minable 
concentrations (under earth conditions which don't apply on the moon) 
are not that obvious and the additional cost to mine on the moon and 
ship back to earth is way uncompetitive.  Tourism?   If and only if you 
get enough infrastructure there to support it.  Water to volatiles 
including rocked fuel?  Depends on who you ask but the proven water 
reserves are not that extensive to say the least.

The moon is quite challenging due to the long winter night, temperature 
flux, and the really nasty lunar dust.  At the least exploitation will 
require dropping small nuclear plants in the short term for adequate 
power across said lunar night.  You also need a lot of highly capable 
autonomous and/or tele-operated bots capable of dealing with the 
environmental issues.  You can't do all the needed work with astronauts 
without a lot of infrastructure already in place, if then.  Doable, and 
worth it from a long-term point of view but a huge money sink for quite 
some time.    Governments cannot do it as they are all facing serious 
economic challenges.

- s