Mining the Moon - Good or Bad?

Guys this is 2015. If we can't build a trebuchet big enough to fling the raw materials back to earth then we might as well give up now.
 
We need to understand the impact first, something very tricky to manage. As of now, I would say bad. We don't know the impact and have no idea what it could do to our planet.

Any change at all in the tides would be disastrous for all sorts of life.
 
randomshenans said:
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?
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It's a bad idea

 
phil675 said:
What could we use to efficiently transport materials and things to and from the moon? I suggest the universes longest cable car system.
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The moon is about 400,000km from earth, so even a high-speed cable-car is going to take some time to get there.

No, my suggestion is we extend the A1 to the moon. Based on the speed many drivers seem to hurtle along it, it would be far quicker!
 
I remember reading something that just one load of copper from an asteroid would be enough to keep us happy for a while. Apparently we've mined all the 'good' copper and now we have to use the bad stuff that requires a lot more raw material to make useful.
 
MooMoo444 said:
Don't be silly. The wire would get tangled up as the earth spins!
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Hence tractor beams!

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I say we build giant rockets on the far side of the moon and bring it to us. Just land it gently somewhere no one will mind.
 
Great thing to do, as well as the asteroid mining.

We need the abundance of (exotic) raw materials to further our races technological advances.
 
I've been playing Homeworld a lot lately and it just depresses me that I'll never live in an age where space travel is trivial.
 
mrbazmondo said:
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.
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this must be a joke right??

http://www.planetaryresources.com/asteriods/
 
Cost for one definitey.

Surely over time when you've decreased the mass of the moon, our planet will start to do crazy things?
 
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