INDUSTRY X . 0
Why
the Moon ?
“ The Apollo missions first sampled the lunar regolith in 1969 , and the Hayabusa spacecraft collected asteroid samples that were returned to Earth in 2010 ”
CLAY KILLINGSWORTH RESEARCH ANALYST , GUIDEHOUSE low earth orbit , for example , requires at least 5 kilograms of additional fuel burned to get it there . Thus , a mining operation on the moon that could produce liquid rocket fuel , even at a sizable multiple of the cost to do so on Earth , would dramatically reduce the cost of expeditions to Mars , the asteroid belt , and beyond .
Q . Space mining sounds like science fiction , how realistic is it , and how far in the future ? A . The Apollo missions first sampled the lunar regolith in 1969 , and the Hayabusa spacecraft collected asteroid samples that were returned to Earth in 2010 . Scientific missions collecting samples provide a technical proof of concept , but commercial operations still face significant technical and economic hurdles . Mining other large celestial bodies , such as the moon or Mars , are nearer technical viability , as
68 November 2021