wired.com — NASA's proposed 2024 moon base will be a steppingstone to Mars, but it may also be a mining outpost. The moon is an abundant source of helium-3, a potent fuel for next-generation nuclear reactors. Trouble is, China, India and Russia have their eyes on it too.
Dec 15, 2006 View in Crawl 4
deadbabyDec 16, 2006
^^ Do we really want it in the hands of the capitalists either?
jrghoullDec 16, 2006
Lysdexia....50 years ago when this stuff was just beginning we recruited russians and germans to help us get goin and catch up to the russians, who at the beginning of the space race got ahead of us by having the first satelight in space, since then however USA have become the victors of the space race...though much of what we do (such as the space station involve other countries such as russia and china.
bevansDec 16, 2006
@andykramNot completely sci-fi either<a class="user" href="http://www.physicscentral.com/news/2002/moon.html">http://www.physicscentral.com/news/2002/moon.html</a>
bugsy187Dec 16, 2006
Don't you understand? We have to make the "moon race" into a sophomoric game so we can feel better about hoarding resources and dicking people over.
btfxDec 16, 2006
Moon wars! Everybody, strap a laser pointer to a telescope! Together we can stop those capitalist pigs!
drivinwestDec 17, 2006
China is in no way involved in the ISS.
bugsy187Dec 20, 2006
@dagonNot only is your post racist, it sounds completely insane.
johnnyzitoDec 21, 2006
<a class="user" href="http://www.digg.com/space/Semper_Fly_Marines_in_Space">http://www.digg.com/space/Semper_Fly_Marines_in_Space</a>hm. I was saying something about the militarization of space...
dudadJan 6, 2007
How much weight do you think we can put on the moon before it crashes into earth?
imiceJan 8, 2007
Davy,Umm...no. We're not talking about shaft or deep mining; we're talking about something akin to strip mining, but only to a depth of 3 or 4 meters. The volume would be a lot to paint, so to speak, but is totally insignificant as a ratio of the moon's mass. Also, and this is a small point, it's "selenographic" (vice geographic). More regolith is dispersed every year through lunar meteoroid impacts than we would be mining. The principle hazard we could expect on the moon from the mining would be the generation of a lot of dust, which is extremely hazardous to astronauts and equipment (inhalation and fouling hazard).