[Red Badger]

The discovery was made thanks to a camera aboard the US Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which swept the surface of the Moon, scrutinising it in seven different light wavelengths. NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University

[Darteaus94025]

This is old news. For example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3uch-1Ouag

[Genoa]

Oil is what we really need.

[Truth29]

And the Russians and the Chinese thank the US for the information.

[Vaquero]

He3 may be more valuable in the long run...

Mine the Moon.

[G Larry]

At half a $BILLION per trip, how much do you have to bring back to get the price below $50,000/oz.?

[GonzoGOP]

Prized on Earth for its strength, ability to resist corrosion and light weight, titanium on the moon, which is mostly found in mineral called ilmenite, could be mined and processed for future use.

Non starter. The energy needed to break the chemical bonds on FeTiO3 are enormous. And the cost of bringing it back to Earth are prohibitive. World demand was only 335,000 tonnes of TiO2, representing about 2.4 million tonnes of ilmenite, per year. There are vast deposits in China, South Africa and especially Norway and Finland. No reason to ship from the moon at $1,000,000 a pound when go to Norway and bring it in by the bulk freighter load at pennies a ton.

[eclecticEel]

Of far more value than the titanium itself is the He3; which is present everywhere on the moon, but is most highly concentrated around titanium. Future prices for He3 could be as high as $1.5m per kilogram - with titanium being just a useful byproduct.

[chuckles]

I hate to always be the cynic, but you can't help but believe NASA is trying to find some funding? Science isn't cutting it, so let's try greed!

I'm surprised it wasn't "unobtainium."

[DBrow]

Apollo made the same discovery, using xray fluorescence.

Whether XRF or hyperspectral mapping, these only measure the surfaces of things and not the depths, and have no physical “grond truth” to determine scale factors or accuracy.

I think a core-drilling robot mission would settle the matter.

As for theusefulness of 18% ilmenite, we’d need to develop a vacuum process to reduce the oxides to metals and separate out the iron, then develop a vacuum process to fabricate Ti parts on the moon. Oh and no water can be used, in fact no aqueous processes at all can be used.

We found just putting footprints there and taking pictures to be pretty challenging.

[onedoug]

If soetoro has his way, we´ll never go back to the Moon.

[magslinger]

When you are mining on the moon, always be sure you know exactly where the laser beam is, Manny.

[traderrob6]

[Conan the Librarian]

Titanium! My Body is 40% Titanium! It’s now worthless!

(Cue up Bender!)

[G Larry]

The only real benefit of returning man to the moon is if we can convince Democrats that it’s the perfect place to experiment with Socialism. They can bring whomever they want to ensure it’s implemented properly.