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The article is deprecated and here is why: Not only are we at the beginning of a manufacturing revolution reducing the amount 'rare' materials needed for many a
by rrggrr 12y ago
The article is deprecated and here is why: Not only are we at the beginning of a manufacturing revolution reducing the amount 'rare' materials needed for many applications, we're also now able to recycle materials down to single digit percentages in many cases. The moon's resources are not needed, and even more so in the present deflationary environment where manufacturing inputs are decreasing in cost dramatically. There are arguments for developing lunar transit capabilities, but economics for military or any other application are not among them.
- hga 12y agoIf you own "space", you also own the Earth. That's worth something, even if you're not using the moon but more favorable sources of mass. And perhaps I've read too much David Drake, but I'd like to see what we could do if we had lots of relatively cheap iridium and other rare stuff which we hope to be able to mine and refine out there. We don't have hardly enough of it down here to recycle into e.g. armor.
- sergiosgc 12y agoThe question is not so much availability of materials as it is the availability of materials out of Earth's gravity well. If you are able to extract materials and build stuff on the moon, launching them into space is then subject to a much nicer "rocket equation". It's not a question of price, either. Building and launching from the moon enables new possibilities.