Thursday, March 12, 2015
Pie-in -the-sky
There is a private effort to build a lunar lander and use it as a test to mine the moon. Investors should keep a distance from the project and PR should as well. The value of the minerals extracted on the moon -- whatever they may be -- would have to be astronomical (pun intended) to make the project economical. The problem with space in general is that costs of operating there escalate as soon as one leaves earth's atmosphere. While it is fun to think about what one might do elsewhere than the earth, no one yet has developed a method to escape earth's orbit efficiently other than by use of a rocket, which is expensive and prone to glitches. In addition, one would have to process minerals on the moon to justify the cost of sending it back to earth. This would require some type of plant to segregate and melt minerals into bars or something else easily transported. There would have to be a desperate need for the substance on earth to make that practical. Thus far, there has been no evidence that such a demand is there. People are always allowed to have their dreams, but this one is pie-in-the-sky and hardly worth publicizing.
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