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Is there a concern of transferring mass between the Earth and Moon (at scale) and its effect on the movement of the planetary bodies over the very long term? I
by jh00ker 4y ago
Is there a concern of transferring mass between the Earth and Moon (at scale) and its effect on the movement of the planetary bodies over the very long term?
I get that right now, the effect would be infinitesimally small. But some comments are talking about turning the moon into a massive factory, using the lunar materials to fabricate semiconductors, data centers, spacecraft. What happens when those products are exported from the moon, thereby reducing the mass of the moon? After hundreds of years of mining and exporting, could we see a change in tidal activity on the Earth, for example? If the moon's pull on the oceans decreased, could that actually help mitigate sea level rise?