Asklemmy

Exploiting resources has to be a joke, right?

No, there is a resource on the moon that could be a game changer for humanity. Heluim-3.

What is He3?

He3 is produced in the sun and arrives at the moon via the solar wind, which constantly hits the moon due to no atmosphere or magnetic field to absorb or deflect it.

The earth has basically zero He3 as the solar wind is deflected by the earth's magnetic field.

Why could it be important?

He3 is a very good fuel for Fusion.

The 2009 movie, Moon, centres around a future He3 mining operation.

The moon is a great launching point. And the water (ice) could be converted to fuel for rockets.

Basically with a permanent moon base we could send much bigger payloads, could refuel rockets before sending them out further into the solar system, could set up observatories that wouldn't be affected by the atmosphere, could collect solar energy and send it back to earth via microwaves. Not to mention all the geological science, spelunking, and moon golf we could be doing.

There's all kinds of things we could do.

Again why? Is this some repetition of the Cold War Soviet-US competition?

Yes, it's a prestige project. It's the same reason why some countries spend billions to host competitions like the Olympics/World Cup: it's an international dick measuring contest.

(For the record, scientific investment in space programs has incredible ROI so I whole heartedly support programs like this even if the motivation for doing so on the part of politicians is less than noble.)

Yea but so what? Hydrogen is literally the most common thing in the universe, no fucking way there is also some on the moon 🤯. Then what’s so spectacular about moon ice, water, or even oxygen? And why does it need people to explore it?

Hydrogen is common, readily available high concentration deposits of hydrogen/oxygen sources are not. The craters being in perpetual darkness does not help robotic survey and exploration since solar panels aren't available and it's probably very cold (although i don't know if RTGs wouldn't fix that)

Exploiting resources has to be a joke, right? Do they want to sell us the newly found moon water? The only point I get is the tourism aspect. Because, of course, I always encourage billionaires to pursue dangerous hobbies 😊

if you want to make space travel and exploration more common, a refueling/refining station or production capabilities on the moon would be awesome - most of the energy we need now for that is needed to escape earths gravity well. Being able to build a space vessel on the moon would be awesome! Also, being able to extract resources on the moon would remove the ecological impact of mining from earth. And like you i always encourage our elite to follow their dreams into whatever abyss they want 😁

Space is the final frontier. It's where we'll be doing the rest of our exploration of the universe. The reason you would do that is not so much to discover new life and new civilizations but to discover new phenomenons and technologies that can help us better understand the universe, help us live better/easier, help us experience cool new things, etc.

The news is full of it, excitement seems high, and I really don’t get it. I’m not against space-related research, but why suddenly the moon? And why send people there? Can someone fill me in on what’s to be gained or why one might be excited about it?

It's the closest celestial body, so it's great for practice. Next up, Mars. Both of these are solid, so we can land there and check them out. Get an idea for what works and what doesn't, how to build habitats in space, etc.

Yea but so what? Hydrogen is literally the most common thing in the universe, no fucking way there is also some on the moon 🤯. Then what’s so spectacular about moon ice, water, or even oxygen? And why does it need people to explore it?

Water is one of the main substances you need for life as we know it. Essentially all life on Earth needs water to some degree, so any time we find water somewhere we get excited because what if it's alien life? Wouldn't that be cool? Aside from that, oxygen, hydrogen, and water in space is good to have, because then you don't have to carry it from Earth. If we set up a base on Luna, maybe we can drink water that's already there, and use hydrogen and oxygen that's already there to power machinery. It's expensive as fuck to get anything into space, so if you don't have to carry something to your destination because there's already some there, that's just better.

Again why? Is this some repetition of the Cold War Soviet-US competition?

For governments, it's part dick measuring competition, part trying to get their names in the history books, part trying to not be left behind. For scientists and the rest of us, it's part livelihood, part curiosity. Space is hard to deal with, so we come up with all sorts of stuff to let us live up there. Here's a list of a bunch of stuff that stems from the space race: https://eu.usatoday.com/story/money/2019/07/08/space-race-inventions-we-use-every-day-were-created-for-space-exploration/39580591/

Exploiting resources has to be a joke, right? Do they want to sell us the newly found moon water? The only point I get is the tourism aspect. Because, of course, I always encourage billionaires to pursue dangerous hobbies 😊

There's a bunch of shit in space that we have very little of, or is hard to reach, on Earth. Not necessarily water, I went over that earlier. But all kinds of other stuff, including He3 which is useful used in nuclear fusion.

Because the moon has no atmosphere, it gets rare elements that cost $$$$$$$$$$$ to make here on earth, which can be used for energy. As we learn more about fusion, we've determined some of the fuel we might eventually use can come from the moon, not to mention nearby asteroids and metals that can be used for cheap manufacturing. Space has a lot of cheap scrap metal. Like, economy crashing cheap, in some cases.

Like war, pushing into new environments requires and creates new branches or research and technology, such as better ways of recycling air, water (looking at you, Arizona, italy, india and any landlocked country), waste, etc. New medical breakthroughs such as 3D printing proteins for remote medicines and vaccines, new power sources such as micro reactors, new space infrastructure such as Skyhooks, and baby's first terraforming research, as we are currently destroying the only known habitable planet known across roughly 13 billion light-years :)

Moon is very attractive as a staging area for missions further into the solar system. Since it has low gravity and no atmosphere, it's much easier to launch stuff from the moon. It would also be possible to build a space elevator on the moon even using current level of technology.

The moon is also a great test for building a space colony. It's a much more realistic prospect than trying to build one on Mars. At some point humanity will become a spacefaring species unless we make ourselves go extinct. Exploration of the Moon is the first step towards that.

It's also worth noting that such large scale projects necessarily result in a lot of technological development that has lots of practical applications here on Earth.

Finally, I personally think that it's good to have an ambitious vision that humanity can work towards. Space exploration is inspiring and it's a positive vision for our future. This is something that's sorely lacking in our world today.

One word: Helium.

We have an ongoing shortage of Helium3 which is used in all sorts of science, medicine and tech. The moon has lots of it. We want it.

They also want the ice and water because it would so much easier to stage launches on the moon than on Earth. If there is ice or water up there, we won't have to send any from Earth.

Two items not mentioned:

1. The cost of space launches is getting to the point where getting to the Moon is becoming economicly feasible to a larger group of nations and/or corporations. This means it is becoming a greater reality for human claims on the Moon to be created and maintained.

2. There may be a decent cache of rare earth metals on the Moon. If there is, that could yield a lot of money for a space company to send these metals to Earth. Given the limited supply on Earth, it may be worth it to mine the materials in space.

Humanity is benefited by space. Getting to space from Earth is very hard because of Earth's gravity well. The Moon sits at the rim of Earth's gravity well and getting to space from the Moon is comparatively much easier, saving about 97% of the energy that it would take to launch the same mass from Earth. Resources such as water can be mined on the Moon to be turned into rocket fuel (Liquid Hydrogen + Liquid Oxygen). The Moon is therefore an excellent staging ground for humanity to get a foothold in space, enabling bigger spacecraft, longer missions, and much much more activity in space. Humanity needs to expand beyond Earth for its own benefit. The Moon is the first stop to getting there.

Where else are the billionaires going to flee to once the planet's proper fucked?

Hello sir or ma’am. I’m from the brightside corporation - can I interest you in owning a slice of paradise? Where you say? The moon!

They want rare Earth metals and minerals and such, duh.

So... China found a mineral on the moon like 2 years ago that everyone seems top want actually. Called Changesite, but i don't know why or what it does. Just that it is some kind of phosphate.

Concerned about growing human and environmental rights, corporations pressure governments to create new unregulated zones to better exploit people and land.

Thanks for all the great answers and the super interesting discussion! I learned a lot and even get the excitement, although a lot of it seems extremely far away from today's possibilities. Mainly the whole mining of Helium3, transporting it back and then actually using it. So I wouldn't be surprised if an even more efficient energy technology was discovered and applied before the first mining activities on the moon begin.

Also, the moon as a possible source of disputes scares me way more than the possibility of using it as a permanent colony or launching point into the great nothingness excites me. And I don't mean that because WW3 seems kinda possible right now, but also because even friendly nations still have disputes over tiny islands. I just don't think we are ready for it.

I enjoyed the active interaction on this post!

Our economic system is depending on everlasting growth. It is obvious, that it's natural boundaries have long been overcome. What remains is selling people and also nations wishes, desires and hopes. Elon Musk's, Jeff Bezos' and also China's Spacegames are really nothing but castles in the sky with a pinch of military sabre rattling.