Lunar Mining Colonies -- What Are They Good For?

Ever since former Gov. Mitt Romney

took a swipe against the concept of lunar mining colonies, an idea that his rival former House Speaker Newt Gingrich champions, the aerospace community has been all atwitter.

It may be a useful exercise to examine what mining the moon would be good for.

Lunar Mining to Support Space Exploration and Settlement

Al Globus, writing at the National Space Society blog, suggests that using lunar resources would be an effective way to supply future space settlers and explorers. Lunar regolith could be used as shielding mass for lunar settler against radiation and solar flares. Water, abundant as ice and in other forms on the moon, can be refined into rocket fuel or used for drinking, agriculture, and other purposes. The moon has various metals such as titanium as well as silicon that have industrial applications.

What about lunar mining to benefit Earth?

Potential huge costs to create infrastructure and transportation mitigate somewhat against mining the moon and shipping material to Earth. There are three potential resources that might make the effort worth-while.

The first is platinum group metals, which are used in fuel cells and catalytic converters. According to an article in the Space Review, should hydrogen fuel cells become a viable method of energy production, say in replacing the internal combustion engine in automobiles, lunar platinum becomes a viable product.

Rare earth elements, vital for a variety of high tech products, constitute another potentially lucrative material for lunar mining, according to Space.Com. The main source currently for rare earths in China, an unsustainable situation when one considered that country is vying for super power supremacy with the United States. Even at a loss, access to rare earths from the moon might be worth it from a national security standpoint.

The one material that many people tout as a target for lunar mining is helium 3. Helium 3 is an isotope that has been deposited in lunar soil by solar wind. According to Popular Science, lunar geologist and Apollo moonwalker Harrison Schmidt is touting helium 3 as the fuel of the future. It can be used to power future fusion plants with little or no radioactive byproducts. The one sticking point is that the sort of fusion power plants that would burn helium 3 do not now exist or is there an immediate prospect, absent a large amount of investment, of building any. But the potential of the moon of being the Persian Gulf of the 21st Century is certainly real if the will is there to make it happen.

The Bottom Line

Contrary to what former Gov. Romney says, there is a practical argument for lunar mining colonies. It is certainly not a "zany" idea. All it takes is will and vision to make them happen.

Mark R. Whittington is the author of Children of Apollo and The Last Moonwalker . He has written on space subjects for a variety of periodicals, including The Houston Chronicle, The Washington Post, USA Today, the LA Times, and The Weekly Standard.

Authors: mining - Yahoo! News Search Results