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?
Allow me to use the linked article for my questions.
There have been three primary drivers of renewed interest in the Moon. The first was the discovery and confirmation in the 1990s and early 2000s that water ice is likely to exist at the lunar poles in permanently shadowed craters. The presence of abundant water, providing oxygen and hydrogen resources, has given space agencies a new reason to explore the poles.
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?
A second factor has been the rise of China’s space program, which has sent a series of ambitious robotic missions to the Moon that have both landed on the far side and returned samples from the lunar surface. China has made no secret of its interest in sending astronauts to the Moon, leading to competing efforts between NASA’s Artemis Program and China’s lunar station goals.
Again why? Is this some repetition of the Cold War Soviet-US competition?
Finally, there has been some interest from private companies in the commercial development of the lunar surface, both to exploit resources there but also for other purposes. This has stimulated investment in private companies to provide transportation to the lunar surface, including ispace, Astrobotic, Intuitive Machines, and Firefly.
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 😊
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.
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.
Concerned about growing human and environmental rights, corporations pressure governments to create new unregulated zones to better exploit people and land.
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.
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.
Much easier to mine more helium on Earth. We have plenty still at home. The shortage is not because we’re literally running out of what we have on our planet.
