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Moon mining is getting closer to reality: Why we need global rules for extracting space resources
(theconversation.com)
this post was submitted on 04 Jul 2025
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It's better than carving up the ocean floors or the usual opencast mining here on earth. And it could be an incentive to invest into space technology.
But there will be disadvantages too, which are invisible to us right now. I'm sure of it.
The cost of anything beyond our current small-scale exploratory probing of space has to be astronomical with our current footing. Imagine how much fuel/energy you would need to get industrial mining equipment to the Moon or asteroid belt, extract meaningful amounts of material, pack it up, send it back to Earth orbit, and de-orbit it intact.
: D
Most of these costs are in terms of energy, one of the most plentiful things in space. Also, if we do things right (a huge if, I know), the bigger idea is to bootstrap it by sending enough tools to make the tools you need to extract and refine resources. This doesn't require a von Neumann machine since we can control them, either directly or remotely. Also, if we are going to extract resources in space, a lot of infrastructure will need to be built first, which is cheaper if we use resources that are already in space. And as the saying goes, the surface of the moon is halfway to anywhere in the solar system.
I think what they will do is just toss it back to earth and let most of it burn up on reentry but at least we can get some extra lead on the planet even if it crashes through someone’s roof occasionally.