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1. Build a space elevator anchored to the moon. 2. Mine raw materials on the moon. 3. Send them over the elevator piece by piece to earth orbit. 4. Assemble

1. Build a space elevator anchored to the moon. 2. Mine raw materials on the moon. 3. Send them over the elevator piece by piece to earth orbit. 4. Assemble the counterweight for an earth-space elevator in orbit. 5. Have TWO space elevators, one to get you to orbit, another to take you to the moon. 6. Colonize the solar system or whatever.

Apofis 7y ago
The moon has a ton of deuterium which could be used for all sorts of things, nuclear power plants and possibly future propulsion tech for example.
- wolfram74 7y ago
  Deuterium is abundant on earth as well. It's tritium and helium3 that's unusually abundant on the moon. But it's the result of solar wind deposition over copious amounts of time. And it's one of the dumbest reason to mine the moon. You can run the math the flux of those elements from the solar wind is minuscule. The area you'd need to harvest for a reliable steady state is huge. You'd be better off putting up solar panels, energizing a rail gun and launching more solar panels into space made from lunar silica.
  - Apofis 7y ago
    Okay, railgun it is.
vinaypai 7y ago
Getting the counterweight to orbit is not the hard part of building an earth space elevator. The hard part is the 36,000 km cable from the surface of the earth to geostationary orbit that can support its own weight against earth's gravity. There are a few experimental materials like carbon nanotubes that have the right tensile strength to weight ratio, but we aren't anywhere close to making them in more than microscopic lengths.
- excalibur 7y ago
  That's okay, we'll keep ourselves occupied with the moon mining part, you work on the cable.
jaimex2 7y ago
7. Accidentally hit some debris with what is basically a giant golf club 8. Enjoy being stuck on Earth after the ensuing Kessler effect
- excalibur 7y ago
  1.5. Use a giant net to collect debris from earth orbit and send it to a landfill on the moon. Or just weld the collected space junk together to build a counterweight ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
pier25 7y ago
7. add a bunch of clones to the Moon station to keep things running smoothly

Apofis 7y ago

The moon has a ton of deuterium which could be used for all sorts of things, nuclear power plants and possibly future propulsion tech for example.

wolfram74 7y ago
Deuterium is abundant on earth as well. It's tritium and helium3 that's unusually abundant on the moon. But it's the result of solar wind deposition over copious amounts of time. And it's one of the dumbest reason to mine the moon. You can run the math the flux of those elements from the solar wind is minuscule. The area you'd need to harvest for a reliable steady state is huge. You'd be better off putting up solar panels, energizing a rail gun and launching more solar panels into space made from lunar silica.
- Apofis 7y ago
  Okay, railgun it is.

vinaypai 7y ago

Getting the counterweight to orbit is not the hard part of building an earth space elevator. The hard part is the 36,000 km cable from the surface of the earth to geostationary orbit that can support its own weight against earth's gravity. There are a few experimental materials like carbon nanotubes that have the right tensile strength to weight ratio, but we aren't anywhere close to making them in more than microscopic lengths.

excalibur 7y ago
That's okay, we'll keep ourselves occupied with the moon mining part, you work on the cable.

jaimex2 7y ago

7. Accidentally hit some debris with what is basically a giant golf club 8. Enjoy being stuck on Earth after the ensuing Kessler effect

excalibur 7y ago
1.5. Use a giant net to collect debris from earth orbit and send it to a landfill on the moon. Or just weld the collected space junk together to build a counterweight ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]

pier25 7y ago

7. add a bunch of clones to the Moon station to keep things running smoothly