Mining the Moon - Good or Bad?

[randomshenans]

I'm helping my son do a piece he has to do on the moon and as such, I was thinking he should put in there about the potentials of mining the moon. Which he then asked if it was a good thing to do?
Got me thinking; is it? I mean it's good from a technology point of view and a resource front, but surely we'll just end up ruining something else, and what is the affect of such mining going to have on the earth in the long run?

Thoughts?

 

[sanaxe1]

Well obviously one of the cons against it is that you can only mine at night when the moon is out!

 

[NoNameNoNumber]

Whats wrong with Earth cheese?

 

[meandu229]

Do we really need that much cheese though? All that will happen is the price of cheese plummits and the farmers can no longer be competitive so will go out of business.
Bad idea IMO

 

[Mark A]

I have a feeling it wouldnt be cost effective.

 

[Edrof]

I see it as inevitable. If large corporations want to, they will. I suspect we are a long time away from that, though.

 

[touch]

Do we really need that much cheese though? All that will happen is the price of cheese plummits and the farmers can no longer be competitive so will go out of business.
Bad idea IMO

They can diversify into making crackers as there will be huge demand for that.

 

[Third Opinion]

Helium 3, could be the future in Earth's energy requirements. Apparently the Moon has big resources of this rare fuel.

 

[SMN]

I have a feeling it wouldnt be cost effective.

This. The cost of getting there, back, wages, insurance to name but a few - you'd need to be mining something you can get ONLY on the moon, essentially. And you'd need a damn good reason for needing it.

 

[snips86x]

I see it as inevitable. If large corporations want to, they will. I suspect we are a long time away from that, though.

Yup and the likes of Dead Space, and Dr Who will become real!

ALIENS!!!!!

 

[Haggisman]

How much would we need to mine for it to start affecting our tides?

 

[phil675]

The spice is vital for space travel.

 

[deusexlumina]

Why not. We will always need resources and we could still do it in as sustainable way as possible. The universe is one big entropy sink anyway, it won't slow down becuase we refuse to mine the moon on principle.

 

[UTmaniac]

How much would we need to mine for it to start affecting our tides?

Was thinking exactly the same, plus if the moon ore comes back to earth, how much will the extra mass affect the earth's orbit around our sun?

 

[hendrix]

Helium 3, could be the future in Earth's energy requirements. Apparently the Moon has big resources of this rare fuel.

^ This

 

[Tunney]

Asteroid mining seems to be a more fashionable idea than moon mining at the moment. It's going to be commercially viable in the next 10 years.

 

[phil675]

What could we use to efficiently transport materials and things to and from the moon? I suggest the universes longest cable car system.

 

[Zethor]

Not a good idea, unless you use the materials there or in space. Protecting tones of materials during the entry in the atmosphere will always cost more than the materials themselves.

 

[benjii]

Helium 3, could be the future in Earth's energy requirements. Apparently the Moon has big resources of this rare fuel.

Indeed. Plus there's the potential for all sorts of up there. The moon has been absorbing solar radiation for billions of years, that's a lot of energy, it's going to have turned into something.

 

[mrbazmondo]

They're already planning on mining asteroids:
http://www.planetaryresources.com/company/overview/

And using 3d printer technology to print a moon base using the materials that are already on the moon:
http://sservi.nasa.gov/articles/building-a-lunar-base-with-3d-printing/

The problem with mining the moon or an asteroid is that once you get whatever rare material and bring it back, it is no longer rare and you start to reduce the value, which makes it harder to recover your costs. You'd have to drive demand for the material at the same time.