# How to exploit lunar resources? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 12, 2018, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-exploit-lunar-resources/817802 "2018-07-12T18:43:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Cardigan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardigan/32/187_2.png) [@Cardigan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardigan)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2018, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-exploit-lunar-resources/817802/1 "2018-07-12T18:43:04Z")
What economic purposes could the moon be put to? The only activity that readily occurs would be mining various metals or minerals – I’m not even sure which elements are present on the moon nor in what abundance they might be found. Presumably any materials found on the moon are much more easily obtained and processed here on Earth to make mining on the moon an economically viable activity. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2018, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-exploit-lunar-resources/817802/2 "2018-07-12T18:52:02Z")
[He-3](https://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Preparing_for_the_Future/Space_for_Earth/Energy/Helium-3_mining_on_the_lunar_surface) is about the only material that would be even remotely economical to mine, and even that is huge stretch. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2018, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-exploit-lunar-resources/817802/3 "2018-07-12T19:58:21Z")
I suspect tourism to the Apollo 11 site is probably the only foreseeable future economically feasible opportunity on the moon. _Here is Neil’s first step…or would have been if the ascent stage rocket had not erased it. This is where Neil growled “oh come on” when he got annoyed at Buzz._ ---
**Author:** ![Hi\_Neighbor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hi_neighbor/32/494_2.png) [@Hi\_Neighbor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hi_Neighbor)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2018, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-exploit-lunar-resources/817802/4 "2018-07-12T20:04:57Z")
I can’t remember the name of it, but there was a movie about the moon where they harvested He-3 from the moon and it took place entirely on the moon. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2018, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-exploit-lunar-resources/817802/5 "2018-07-12T20:18:42Z")
Not the OP’s question, but I’ll just note that there are a bunch of asteroids in orbit around the Earth. Since they have no effective gravity well and have an abundance of the heavy elements (compared to Earth’s crust). > [@](#): > > Although asteroids and Earth accreted from the same starting materials, Earth’s relatively stronger gravity pulled all heavy siderophilic (iron-loving) elements into its core during its molten youth more than four billion years ago.[12][13][14] This left the crust depleted of such valuable elements until a rain of asteroid impacts re-infused the depleted crust with metals like gold, cobalt, iron, manganese, molybdenum, nickel, osmium, palladium, platinum, rhenium, rhodium, ruthenium and tungsten (some flow from core to surface does occur, e.g. at the Bushveld Igneous Complex, a famously rich source of platinum-group metals)[citation needed]. Today, these metals are mined from Earth’s crust, and they are essential for economic and technological progress. Hence, the geologic history of Earth may very well set the stage for a future of asteroid mining. From [Asteroid mining - Wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asteroid_mining) ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2018, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-exploit-lunar-resources/817802/6 "2018-07-12T20:35:05Z")
> [@Hi\_Neighbor](#): > > I can’t remember the name of it, but there was a movie about the moon where they harvested He-3 from the moon and it took place entirely on the moon. I think it was called “The Bus that Couldn’t Slow Down”. On a more serious note, there are no materials on the moon that would justify the astronomical cost of recovering those materials. The moon could be strewn with diamonds and gold and it still wouldn’t make any economic sense. The only time that lunar materials would be worth recovering is if you’re trying to build something on the moon. Then it would make sense to use lunar materials, since that would mean you wouldn’t have to pay the astronomical cost of hauling those materials from Earth. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2018, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-exploit-lunar-resources/817802/7 "2018-07-12T20:45:32Z")
One suggestion I’ve heard is to use the moon as a base for further exploration. So if, for example, you want to go to Mars, you assemble the ship on the moon and take off from there. The gravity well is much less deep than a mission that starts from earth. A related idea is to mine materials from the moon to use to build space colonies, ---
**Author:** ![Sanity\_Challenged](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de053/32.png) [@Sanity\_Challenged](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sanity_Challenged)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2018, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-exploit-lunar-resources/817802/8 "2018-07-12T21:04:17Z")
Giant space billboard. ---
**Author:** ![Ignotus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ecc23a/32.png) [@Ignotus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignotus)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2018, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-exploit-lunar-resources/817802/9 "2018-07-12T21:18:46Z")
Probably not exactly what you have in mind, but there is [tidal power generation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidal_power). ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2018, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-exploit-lunar-resources/817802/10 "2018-07-12T21:21:22Z")
Various dirty industries. No, not the porn industry. (Although you probably could get into some interesting positions with the reduced gravity.) I’m talking about industries that produce a lot of toxic waste. Disposing of that waste is a major problem here on Earth. But on the moon? Just dump it out back. There’s no environment to worry about. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2018, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-exploit-lunar-resources/817802/11 "2018-07-12T21:27:34Z")
Yes, but then you’ve got to ship whatever products you produced back to Earth and sell them at a profit. How are you going to do that inexpensively enough to justify a fricken Moon Base? ---
**Author:** ![campp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@campp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/campp)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2018, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-exploit-lunar-resources/817802/12 "2018-07-12T21:32:54Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > One suggestion I’ve heard is to use the moon as a base for further exploration. So if, for example, you want to go to Mars, you assemble the ship on the moon and take off from there. The gravity well is much less deep than a mission that starts from earth. A related idea is to mine materials from the moon to use to build space colonies, Bingo ---
**Author:** ![Perderabo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a183cd/32.png) [@Perderabo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Perderabo)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2018, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-exploit-lunar-resources/817802/13 "2018-07-12T21:35:33Z")
> [@Hi\_Neighbor](#): > > I can’t remember the name of it, but there was a movie about the moon where they harvested He-3 from the moon and it took place entirely on the moon. That was Moon. ```auto https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_(film) ``` ---
**Author:** ![Heracles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heracles/32/487_2.png) [@Heracles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heracles)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2018, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-exploit-lunar-resources/817802/14 "2018-07-13T00:13:05Z")
> [@Perderabo](#): > > That was Moon. > > ```auto > > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_(film) > > ``` Or perhaps it was Whoosh. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2018, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-exploit-lunar-resources/817802/15 "2018-07-13T04:04:50Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > Yes, but then you’ve got to ship whatever products you produced back to Earth and sell them at a profit. > > How are you going to do that inexpensively enough to justify a fricken Moon Base? Once they build the Space Elevator travel to the Moon will be very cheap. ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2018, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-exploit-lunar-resources/817802/16 "2018-07-13T04:12:16Z")
> [@Hi\_Neighbor](#): > > I can’t remember the name of it, but there was a movie about the moon where they harvested He-3 from the moon and it took place entirely on the moon. The location’s just a glorified extra. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2018, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-exploit-lunar-resources/817802/17 "2018-07-13T04:18:12Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > Yes, but then you’ve got to ship whatever products you produced back to Earth and sell them at a profit. > > How are you going to do that inexpensively enough to justify a fricken Moon Base? You could use the approach described in Robert Heinlein’s novel _The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress_; drop them. Perhaps in a more controlled manner than in the novel. ---
**Author:** ![Heracles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heracles/32/487_2.png) [@Heracles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heracles)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2018, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-exploit-lunar-resources/817802/18 "2018-07-13T10:25:27Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I’m talking about industries that produce a lot of toxic waste. Disposing of that waste is a major problem here on Earth. But on the moon? Just dump it out back. There’s no environment to worry about. To generate toxic waste, you need raw materials, often carbon-based. Most of that stuff would need to be rocketed up from Earth. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2018, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-exploit-lunar-resources/817802/19 "2018-07-13T12:08:48Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > Once they build the Space Elevator travel to the Moon will be very cheap. Even more once they get the Earth/Moon wormhole open. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2018, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-exploit-lunar-resources/817802/20 "2018-07-13T12:36:46Z")
Hey, in _The Moon is a Harsh Mistress_, they were dropping their rocks in a _very_ controlled manner! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-exploit-lunar-resources/817802.md?page=2)