Posted on 07/15/2018 7:36:12 PM PDT by BenLurkin
A diverse range of scientists, engineers and mining technologists have begun blueprinting what hardware and missions are required to explore and establish a prospecting campaign for water ice at the poles of Earth's moon.
Why have they warmed up to ultra-cold lunar ice? Water ice can be converted to oxygen, liquid water and rocket fuel. Exploiting the stores of this resource — which is thought to be abundant within permanently shadowed polar craters on the moon — could help pioneers survive and thrive on the moon, and help entrepreneurs turn a profit.
For example, United Launch Alliance is maintaining its $3,000-per-kilogram ($1,360 per lb.) offer, first made in 2016, for moon-derived propellant delivered to low Earth orbit. The satellite communications industry could well be the first market for space resources.
Scientists, engineers and exploration advocates are keen to characterize lunar ice as an economic resource. To do so, however, more data is needed about lunar ice deposits, its distribution, concentration, quantity, disposition, depth, geotechnical properties and any other characteristics necessary to design and develop extraction and processing systems.
That said, the biggest uncertainty is still the form of the lunar ice. The method used for mining this resource depends on what form it is in.
Scientists, engineers and exploration advocates are keen to characterize lunar ice as an economic resource. To do so, however, more data is needed about lunar ice deposits, its distribution, concentration, quantity, disposition, depth, geotechnical properties and any other characteristics necessary to design and develop extraction and processing systems.
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
Where do you get your facts? Do you have your own satellite orbiting the moon, gathering information? If so then you’re right—we don’t need NASA.
What about the Helium 3?
Didn’t any of those Rocket Scientists see the Movie “Moon”?
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What a joke!
Did someone get a government grant to think this fiasco up?
Will they be selling ice to eskimos?
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>> “there is absolutely NO moon ice. ZIP. This is all a hoax to get your money.” <<
Shhh!
Well, climate change is working so well since the arctic has had very little summer, so far. And, at the station Vostok in the antarctic, there has been the coldest temp. ever recorded. These guys have to do something to get uncle sugar to pony up more money for ‘moonbat’ ideas.
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We definitely don’t need NASA!
They do nothing but scam us with global warming schemes.
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>> “These guys have to do something to get uncle sugar to pony up more money for ‘moonbat’ ideas.” <<
That is their prime function!
That may not go over too well with the space aliens’ reportedly long established operations on the moon. Maybe we can mask our real intentions by telling them we’re selling the ice to our Eskimos.
We need something that NASA was originally designed to do—explore space. The future doesn’t belong to those who let others take the lead. I don’t want America to eventually become a backwater compared to China.
Ice in of itself has zero energy to offer as a propellant in rocket fuel. It is the ingredient that can be made into rocket fuel. To do this requires an energy source. The two options are galvanic solar cells or a nuclear reactor. This will be an engineering and heavy lift to the moon nightmare. This will not happen in our lifetimes. When cheap payload to the Moon is possible it may happen. I personally doubt it. When and if we can achieve cheap payload to the moon we no longer need to do it. Everything that we put on the moon needs to climb out of its gravity well also to leave.
The concept of ice on the moon is good for a scientific station on the moon. It would make things cheaper and simpler. You will still need a small nuclear reactor or galvanic cells.
Forget the moon as a base of operations beyond the moon.
Don’t need Space-kimos. We already have a couple space-cases.
I forgot to add that robotic missions to the moon can do great science at a fraction of the cost of a man on the moon. Case in point is our rovers on Mars.
Don’t bother with him. He is an idiot.
Dude, you are not the brightest “tool” in the marque nor the sharpest “bulb” in the shed.
The Atlantians riding Dinosaurs had them fling ice up with their tails from Antarctica 5000 years ago.
Everyone knows that.
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress!
Robert Heinlein
And a moon explorer is being sent soon by India to look for Helium3.
? Supposed to be some kind of atomic fuel of the future.
The commercial exploration of not-so-near space begins!
I need to work for these companies. I need to be automating the testing of their software.
India is going to the moon to look for Helium3.
Might be start of something useful.
Why? Ganymede almost certainly contains 30x more H2O than all of Earth (water + ice). Titan, about 14x (just the liquid H2O), Callisto, about 4x, Europa, about 2x.
Why, again, would there not be (mostly underground) ice on Earth’s moon?
I am thinking Moonie Shave Ice with flavors that shoot the Moon. It's outta this world!
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