[ExI] The Moon's Cold Embrace

Adrian Tymes atymes at gmail.com
Thu Aug 13 23:40:54 UTC 2020


On Thu, Aug 13, 2020 at 4:14 PM Stuart LaForge via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

> Perhaps the simplest profit model for the moon might be as an
> advertising space.


While it is a simple model, it is also a nonstarter.


> How much would a company pay to have it's corporate
> logo emblazoned across the moon at night?


Not nearly enough to make it happen.

Not to mention, if any corporation did do it, that corporation would soon
cease to exist due to public backlash - even if it were based in Russia or
China and tried to buddy up with those governments.  Which means the people
setting up the ad would have a problem getting paid (assuming they lived on
the Moon for the rest of their lives to avoid persecution).

The dark side of the moon offers a commodity impossible to find on
> earth or most of the nearby solar system: complete radio-silence from
> all terrestrial sources. This has immense scientific and strategic
> value. Commercial applications are possible as well.
>

What commercial applications do you see?


> > Fuel stations to the rest of the solar system is simply an insignificant
> > market.  It'd be doing well to generate even a few million dollars per
> > year, nowhere near the cost of setting up a lunar colony.  Services to
> > things already in orbit generates even less money, within most potential
> > investors' time horizons.  So neither of those ideas are worth serious
> > consideration.
>
> The economic value of the moon as a fueling station would be expected
> to increase over time as a network effect of more colonies being
> established throughout the solar system.
>

Notice that I said "within most potential investors' time horizons".
Investors are quite particular about being paid back within a certain
number of years.  If you look like you'll take much longer than that, they
won't invest.

This is why most financial schemes beyond the personal scale that take more
than a decade to pay off simply don't happen.
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