2 ms·
As far as we know there is little that's economical to bring back to earth. There are quite possibly enormous iron and nickel reserves from meteor impacts (e.g.
by wongarsu 2y ago
As far as we know there is little that's economical to bring back to earth. There are quite possibly enormous iron and nickel reserves from meteor impacts (e.g. [1]). Mining them for use on earth isn't that interesting, but if you want to build large structures in space (or on the moon) having metal that far out of earth's gravity well is pretty valuable.
And then there are the unknown unknowns. We spend a lot of time prospecting earth, and haven't spent all that much prospecting the moon. This will be much easier with boots on the ground. And while the moon's lack of geological activity means it isn't good at concentrating resources, it also means remains from impact events remain much more reachable and concentrated than on earth.
1: https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2019GL082252 https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2019GL08...
- thaumasiotes 2y agoClaiming that iron reserves on the moon are valuable because they make it easier to maintain control of the iron reserves on the moon isn't going to convince many people, and zero competent people.
- fullstackchris 2y agoDon't know why you are being downvoted... I've noticed that this whole asteroid mining (or really mining of any extraterrestrial body at all for that matter) has almost reached meme levels of hysteria here on hackernews... I too don't understand it.
- ecshafer 2y agoIron reserves on the moon / asteroid / space are only going to become valuable once there is a reason to mine, smelt and forge in space, outside of Earth's gravity well. So if we can ever get say giant space ships and space stations built in space, sure. But unfortunately, that looks unlikely this century.
- HeyLaughingBoy 2y agoAgreed. But at least the School of Mines is thinking ahead: https://space.mines.edu/ https://space.mines.edu/