4 ms·

Water possibly could be of great value in the future? Moon has plenty of drinking water. Maybe gold, not sure if there’s gold on the Moon?

krisoft 8y ago
What happened here on earth in your imagined scenario where it's worth importing water from the moon? (and how did we survive that long enough for a market to develop?)
- dotancohen 8y ago
  To be fair, I hesitate to spend €1 on a liter of spring water today. However for a single drop of moon water I might trade my car, sex, or significant work. Refined aluminum was once scarcer than gold, and aluminum jewelry was extraordinarily expensive.
lawlessone 8y ago
Desalination is expensive but i think it might be cheaper than moon water.
- aristophenes 8y ago
  I was about to upvote you, then realized desalinization is not even expensive anymore. Shipping water from the moon to earth is just a really really bad idea. Ha, even burning the fuels to send the rockets into space would create more water here on earth than we could bring back. Fuel + Oxygen --> carbon dioxide + water
pjc50 8y ago
Ah yes, the entirely viable project of moving water from a bone dry vacuum rock to a planet 2/3 covered by water. I'm not sure it would be viable to return gold from the moon even if the moon was made of solid gold.
- richardknop 8y ago
  Yeah that's a good point. At least it could be used locally by the colony then.
- dwighttk 8y ago
  just push the whole thing into the pacific... probs be alright, right?
- stcredzero 8y ago
  Ah yes, the entirely viable project of moving water from a bone dry vacuum rock to a planet 2/3 covered by water. Water as a space resource is primarily talked about for use in space. I'm not sure it would be viable to return gold from the moon even if the moon was made of solid gold. It turns out it's a lot cheaper to return stuff from the moon, than it costs to send it to the moon. This is especially true if the stuff is dead, and you don't mind subjecting it to 10's of thousands of g's and you can use electromagnetic accelerators running in free vacuum on the surface, instead of rockets.
aristophenes 8y ago
Pure drinking water literally falls from the sky on this planet.
- p2t2p 8y ago
  *for now
  - aristophenes 8y ago
    When/How do you anticipate that stopping? Unless the entire planet freezes over, then you'll have even more fresh water in the form of ice. As long as it's above freezing, and 2/3 of our planet is covered in water, it will be raining somewhere.

krisoft 8y ago

What happened here on earth in your imagined scenario where it's worth importing water from the moon? (and how did we survive that long enough for a market to develop?)

dotancohen 8y ago
To be fair, I hesitate to spend €1 on a liter of spring water today. However for a single drop of moon water I might trade my car, sex, or significant work. Refined aluminum was once scarcer than gold, and aluminum jewelry was extraordinarily expensive.

lawlessone 8y ago

Desalination is expensive but i think it might be cheaper than moon water.

aristophenes 8y ago
I was about to upvote you, then realized desalinization is not even expensive anymore. Shipping water from the moon to earth is just a really really bad idea. Ha, even burning the fuels to send the rockets into space would create more water here on earth than we could bring back. Fuel + Oxygen --> carbon dioxide + water

pjc50 8y ago

Ah yes, the entirely viable project of moving water from a bone dry vacuum rock to a planet 2/3 covered by water. I'm not sure it would be viable to return gold from the moon even if the moon was made of solid gold.

richardknop 8y ago
Yeah that's a good point. At least it could be used locally by the colony then.
dwighttk 8y ago
just push the whole thing into the pacific... probs be alright, right?
stcredzero 8y ago
Ah yes, the entirely viable project of moving water from a bone dry vacuum rock to a planet 2/3 covered by water. Water as a space resource is primarily talked about for use in space. I'm not sure it would be viable to return gold from the moon even if the moon was made of solid gold. It turns out it's a lot cheaper to return stuff from the moon, than it costs to send it to the moon. This is especially true if the stuff is dead, and you don't mind subjecting it to 10's of thousands of g's and you can use electromagnetic accelerators running in free vacuum on the surface, instead of rockets.

aristophenes 8y ago

Pure drinking water literally falls from the sky on this planet.

p2t2p 8y ago
*for now
- aristophenes 8y ago
  When/How do you anticipate that stopping? Unless the entire planet freezes over, then you'll have even more fresh water in the form of ice. As long as it's above freezing, and 2/3 of our planet is covered in water, it will be raining somewhere.