Is Mining On The Moon"s Horizon?

Is Mining On The Moon"s Horizon?
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Alexander Klein/AFP/Getty Images

Alexander Klein/AFP/Getty Images

A U.S. company is taking what it hopes to be a small step toward eventually mining the moon.

Las Vegas-based Moon Express just unveiled the design for a small robot spacecraft about the size of a coffee table that it says could move about the moon’s surface powered only by solar panels and hydrogen peroxide.

The company hopes to build the robot and send it to the moon by late 2015, win the $ 30 million Lunar X Prize from Google for the first privately funded moon rover, and eventually get around to putting on the moon an operation capable of extracting valuable minerals.

Even if all goes as planned, that’s a long way off, says Bob Richards, co-founder of Moon Express. It would take repeated moon missions over the next decade before any mining could begin.

“Everything we fight about on Earth, all the resources are available in infinite quantities in space,” says Richards, pointing out the moon has platinum and other rare Earth elements. “The moon is the first shopping market next door to us.”

But Moon Express isn’t the only one eyeing the potential business opportunities on the moon. China’s recently-launched lunar probe also will look for natural resources. And Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic Technology is aiming at the Google Lunar X Prize with space exploration, tourism and resource-harvesting in mind.

There are others in the game, as well. And the United Nations’ Outer Space Treaty of 1967 says anyone is free to harvest resources on the moon, a bit like the high seas.

But Tony Milligan, a teaching fellow of philosophy at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, argued in a recent paper that the moon shouldn’t be mined unless there are much larger stakes at risk, such as survival of the human race.

“If something tremendously valuable were to be found under the pyramids or under the Sphinx we would think of it as a bad idea to go in and shift or remove or destroy these objects in order to get at it,” Milligan says. “I think we should look towards asteroids rather than churning up the moon or Mars.”

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Moon"s desolate, not beautiful: Buzz

Former astronaut Buzz Aldrin has spoken about his part in the moon landing and the possibility of a manned mission to Mars in an interview with David Frost for Al Jazeera. Courtesy: Al Jazeera

Buzz Aldrin says colonising Mars is critical to the human race. Source: AFP

HIS footprint on the surface of the moon is one of the most enduring images in history.

But Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon, confesses he thought the moon was “desolate” not ”beautiful” as described by Neil Armstrong who walked the moon first, the Daily Mail UK reports.

In an interview that aired in the UK on Friday night, Aldrin said: “Neil had an optimistic way of using the word ‘beautiful’. But when I looked out, it wasn’t beautiful. It was desolate – totally lifeless.”

Aldrin was also quizzed about whether Armstrong had prepared his infamous “one step for man” line, saying Armstrong had time to think about it while they prepared for the moon landing.

The brave astronaut also responded to criticism of current spending to colonise Mars, saying it’s necessary for the survival of the human race.

And he said it can be achieved because of the power of technology.

“What did we have in the sixties and seventies? Undisputed leadership in the world in technology, as exhibited by the Apollo Programme,” he said.

“Look at what Silicon Valley has done – the advance of computers. We lead the world….and in these hard economic times, we need to inspire people.”

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NEWS.com.au | Technology News

Moon"s desolate, not beautiful: Buzz