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Mining on the Moon

04.08.2015

Space exploration is a significant source of income for large and small corporations around the world and provides jobs for tens, if not hundreds of thousands of people. However, legislators who approve the budgets of space agencies periodically have questions about the appropriateness of such costs.

The report was prepared by the National Space Society and the Space Frontier Foundation, American non-profit organizations that promote the idea of human settlements beyond Earth, and was abstracted by an independent group of former NASA leaders, astronauts and space policymakers. The key takeaways from the report are (1) it is now possible to return to the moon and build a mining base there, and (2) it is possible to do so for as little as 10 percent of the current estimated cost of $100 billion.

The report proposes the creation of a lunar industrial base that extracts water from the lunar regolith, processes it into hydrogen, and sends hydrogen into lunar orbit to refuel spacecraft on their way to Mars or somewhere else. Such a system would save up to $10 billion a year on the cost of a Martian expedition. According to the authors of the report, the base will be served by four astronauts, and over 12 years of operation, it will be able to produce 200 megatons of fuel with a total value of $40 billion.

The project includes several stages. First, the robots will have to determine the amount of hydrogen in the lunar crust and its location. If there is not enough hydrogen and it is difficult to produce, the whole project will end immediately. Then it will be necessary to develop a reusable spacecraft to take people to the moon and back. After that, it will be necessary to develop technologies for the extraction of lunar ice, a shuttle to deliver equipment from lunar orbit to the surface, choose a place for drilling, etc. etc.

The authors of the report admit that in order to reduce costs by 90%, it is necessary to develop many technologies that do not yet exist. However, there is nothing unrealistic in the plans. The most important thing is to find the best option for cooperation between public and private enterprises in order to repeat the success of Space X, which spent $9 million on the development of the Falcon 443 rocket and the Dragon crew module, while NASA would have spent $4 billion on the same.

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