UnderTheRain

I kind of doubt any sort of mining is the goal behind the Chinese moon program. Anything you can mine on the moon you can find here at a much lower price. [\QUOTE]

Apart from helium 3 which the moon has in abundance that the earth has none off. Russia and China said years ago that they planned to mine for it on the moon as did nasa I believe. It'll be used in next gen reactors. Estimated value? One trillion dollars a ton. How do you get it? You heat moon rock (which has a large water content) to extract the water, split it into hydrogen (fuel) and oxygen (to breath) keep heating the rock and at (I think from memory) 800 degrees it gives off helium 3. Since the moon has no magnetic protection or atmosphere the whole surface has been absoring the h 3 for as long at its been there.

It was a while ago I read about it but the plan was China to be on the moon in 2020 and Russia 2025 (being largely a commercial venture). Plus if you can produce hydrogen and oxygen cheaply on the moon it will serve as a lauch pad for those asteroids. I read that the mineral value of the nearest mineable asteroid was 100 trillion dollars of gold 100 trillian dollars of platinum and 100 trillion dollars of other elements.

It's just a pity that all the nations can't pool their resources for the good of all to get out into space but with so much potential profit in off world mining it might be businesses that take the next step.

Nasa being publicly funded must respect and be accountable to the economic needs of that public. But now space travel is becoming more commercial the technologies in use will become cheaper. Each shuttle lauch was $500million hopefully one day governments everywhere won't be so paranoid and release some of the tech into the public domain to allow businesses to make cost effective launch systems. There's a lot of data and tech that the Usa, Russia and China have that businesses could use. Ah one day we might be one world (without money and borders all working for the common good - um that's all a bit star trek lol)

Brian