Skyrmir@lemmy.world 1 day ago
The Moon is a staging area and supply of resources. Lunar launch costs are almost negligible to Earth, so large scale mining of rare earths, deuterium, and other metals is viable. And the low gravity means building/launching giant ships capable of reaching the outer solar system is possible.
The research and knowledge gained from a lunar base would almost certainly far exceed the cost of building it as well. Science and practices in medical and botanical fields that would be directly applicable here on Earth, but are not possible or would not be studied without the existence of a lunar base.
SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 1 day ago
Science fiction.
To mine anything of value would mean it has to be rarer than on earth, and that still means generating millions of tonnes of ore and smelting and processing it…in a zero atmosphere environment, with not large power sources, then somehow do this cheaper than on Earth, with 1000x more danger. It would have to start with building habitats for thousands.
The amount of bullshit on moon mining is huge even by Elon Musk standards.
WoodScientist@lemmy.world 1 day ago
The point of mining things in space is not to bring them back to Earth.
Skyrmir@lemmy.world 1 day ago
It doesn’t have to be more rare than Earth metals, supply just has to be more limited than demand. Given the rising use cases, and the global population, it’s only a question of time until economic viability. Especially in cases, like now, where supply is constrained by political tensions. It becomes a national security issue to not have a sovereign supply. Lunar mining is cheaper than a resource war.