From Letters section of the WSJ March 27, 1010..... Harvesting Lunar Soil For Energy Bonanza .ArticleComments In regard to "Let's Go Back to the Moon and to Mars and Beyond" by Harrison Schmitt, (Letters, March 8): Buzz Aldrin's Feb. 26 op-ed in praise of White House space policy and its proposed cancellation of the Constellation program, has created much contention. Former astronaut Harrison Schmitt's counterpoint is particularly cogent in describing manned lunar missions as preparatory for deeper exploration. Others have asserted on an emotional level that the U.S. should continue manned space exploration ("U.S. Should Lead in Space Ventures," Letters, March 1). But none have given any specific, compelling economic case to do so. There's at least one. And it's big. The Constellation program was originally conceived as a commercial development project. As President George W. Bush announced in January 2004, it would be directed not merely to shuttle astronauts back and forth to Mars or to the moon just for exploration, but to begin the "harvesting and processing of lunar soil." What's so special about lunar soil? It contains helium-3, a non radioactive isotope that fuels clean nuclear fusion. There is thought to be enough on the moon (more than a million tons) to power the Earth's projected energy needs well beyond the 25th century. It could be the ultimate "cash crop." Matt Andersson President Indigo Aerospace Inc. Chicago
When gold reaches $75,000 an ounce, the trip will be worth it. Even though, I'm a goldbug, I'm not holding my breath.
Well, returning a million tons of this stuff to earth is a mega-project in itself. Cannot just drop it onto earth, have to bring it in by ship, through unbelievable heat of reentry. One shuttle launch was $500 million apiece. But that does not even tough on, do we really think we can scrape 3,793,000 square kilometers of the moon, down to whatever depth necessary, to recover this all - in a vacuum? And what will other nations say about anyone harvesting the moon for one country in particular? Antarctica is under treaty, that it is not to be used for such purposes. I can suspect other countries would react similarly to the moon.
Bearish Gartley formation on GLD after the Obama announcement on precious metal rich asteriod exploration. GLD down 2.3%. Gold manipulator Paulson & Co. being involved in GS CDO fraud indictment plays another "small" part in the drop.
The spacecraft that touched down on Eros no doubt planted a little flag, and the government now has that gold on its books. It will give it to the Fed to repair its balance sheet after it eats the bad agency debt. All is well after all.
After bringing a few hundred thousand tons of gold to earth, we would quickly find out that the price of gold drops to 3 dollars per ounce. Just like Amethyst used to be as valuable in the 1800s as diamonds, rubies, and sapphires. Now that we have alot of amethyst, an amethyst stone the size of you first is worth about 60 cents on ebay.
That is a good idea except mineral rights claim by robots has never been recognized as legal. The General Mining Act of 1872 states that: "All citizens of the United States of America 18 years or older have the right under the 1872 mining law to locate a lode (hard rock) or placer (gravel) mining claim on federal lands open to mineral entry. These claims may be located once a discovery of a locatable mineral is made. Locatable minerals include but are not limited to platinum, gold, silver, copper, lead, zinc, uranium and tungsten." This enterprise requires human exploration and claims of the asteroids. This is about the only justification for further human space exploration that Nasa can come up with, the rest of space exploration can really be done much better and cheaper by robots.