[Pontiac]

Not to rain on your parade but considering the astronomical cost of sending a pound of payload to the moon I can not see finding quantities of even the elusive Helium 3 on the moon being able to turn a profit.

Unless the cost of lifting mass in to orbit can be drastically cut I see no way of turning a profit mining the moon.

Even if you do cut the cost of achieving orbit, the first place to mine would be asteroids because then you would be able to negate the cost of escaping the Moons gravity.

[Captain Beyond]

We will get the cost down that is why we need the private sector involved so it can happen. If there is a profit to be made and we can get the government out of the way it is a whole new frontier. The Gold Rush opened up a whole new way in America so can this. But if it is to succeed it will need to be lead by the private sector not the government.

[aruanan]

Not to rain on your parade but considering the astronomical cost of sending a pound of payload to the moon I can not see finding quantities of even the elusive Helium 3 on the moon being able to turn a profit.

Unless the cost of lifting mass in to orbit can be drastically cut I see no way of turning a profit mining the moon.

Even if you do cut the cost of achieving orbit, the first place to mine would be asteroids because then you would be able to negate the cost of escaping the Moons gravity.

Come on. Be honest. You didn't actually bother think through any of this before reflexively tossing off the above, did you? And all those folks with plans for mining the moon have taken into account costs on developing mining techniques and equipment, costs to operate it there, but have, except for you, completely overlooked costs to get it there and costs to get finished product back? You may as well make the same arguments about telecommunications satellites because they aren't bringing anything back at all, they're just there because of their position--oh, their value lies in what they enable us to do in spite of the costs to lift and operate them because of the unique nature of their position?