About 5 years ago, mining the Moon is not entertained by geologists. Not that it is impossible but because they do not believe that essential minerals and elements may be found in it. However, if you will mention the idea now, geologists, business magnates and even the government will certainly welcome the idea. Didn’t NASA just welcomed those aspiring and full-pledged scientists to come up with ROBOTS that are capable to explore the outside of the Earth?
Certainly, the Moon has a high chance of acquiring several important and rare minerals. According to satellite imaging, the top 10 cm of regolith(its soil) on south pole of the Moon has more than 100 times gold deposit when compared with the Earth’s biggest mine.
“There is a business case now for mining (on the moon) as an economic activity,” said Dale Boucher, the CEO of Deltion Innovations.
So, why was it really a laughable idea few years back? That is because getting into the Moon could actually cost a fortune. According to Gordon Osinski, founder and director of the Canadian Lunar Research Network, “Some of the present estimates are that a one-litre bottle of water soft-landed on the moon would cost about a quarter of a million dollars.”
That is the reason why a lot of business magnates, government officials and mining companies are willing to invest a lot of money just to make the exploration possible.
The method that needs to be executed to make it possible should surpass several challenges such as:
- Temperature. Moon’s temperature is about -200 degrees Celsius.
- No Atmosphere.
- Solar radiation could possibly ruin devices.
Apart from these technical difficulties, legal issues may also be faced. The Outer Space Treaty created by the United Nations in 1967 was too vague when it comes to resource extraction.
“Those policy and legal issues are going to be as challenging as the engineering,” said Osinski.
According to experts, the success of this venture will probably occur 10 to 20 years from now. We certainly need a good kick of invention!