The Times - UK (2020-09-15)

22 1GM Tuesday September 15 2020 | the times

News

Most people look at the moon and see a

pretty object in the night sky. Nasa,

however, wants companies to start

seeing a business opportunity.

The US space agency is asking

private companies around the world to

collect dirt and rocks from the lunar

surface before selling them to Nasa.

Nasa has said it will buy samples from

50 to 500 grams for $15,000 to $25,000.

While such payments are tiny in

comparison to the cost of successfully

sending a spaceship with the right ex-

traction equipment to the moon, the

announcement is an attempt to start es-

tablishing the laws and business prac-

tices around mining the lunar surface.

Experts believe that within the next

few decades, large-scale mining

operations that can extract water ice

from the moon will be in place. This will

enable astronauts to live on the moon’s

surface for a prolonged period, and will

also make it easier to go on to Mars.

“It’s inevitable that sometime this

century, nations will begin establishing

full mining and manufacturing supply

chains outside of Earth’s gravity well,”

Dr Philip Metzger, a planetary scientist

at the University of Central Florida,

said. “It’ll be a race between entrepre-

neurs, companies and nations. It’s

going to open up a billion times greater

resources and it will be an economic re-

volution greater than any we’ve seen

before.”

Geological surveys have shown that

the moon contains water, helium-3,

and rare earth metals. Helium-3 is a gas

that is extremely rare on Earth and it is

believed it could be used as an efficient

fuel in future nuclear fusion power

plants to power our energy supply.

Benjamin Sovacool, a professor of

energy policy at the University of Suss-

ex, said that while mining on the moon

would be prohibitively expensive in the

short term, it could eventually provide

“lucrative and even efficient sources of

materials, minerals or metals”. He

added that mining on the moon could

also be socially acceptable as it would

not involve touching lands that involve

indigenous communities, and “avoids

claims of human rights abuses or social

irresponsibility”.

The move by Nasa is part of its

Artemis project, which wants to get a

man and woman onto the moon again

by 2024. It will then set up a permanent

presence on and around the moon over

the next decade, before eventually

sending astronauts to Mars.

However, some astronomers are

worried about what this may mean for

our view of the night’s sky. “Unless we

are very careful, the more ‘industrial’

activity we see in space, the harder it

will be to have clear views of the deep

cosmos,” James Geach, a professor at

the Centre for Astrophysics Research

at the University of Hertfordshire, said.

Moon miners will sell rocks to Nasa

Tom Knowles

Technology Correspondent

Greenland’s

biggest ice

shelf melting

Ben Webster Environment Editor

A 42-square mile chunk of the Arctic’s

largest remaining ice shelf has broken

off in northeast Greenland, prompting

scientists to warn that record-breaking

temperatures are accelerating ice loss.

Satellite images reveal that a section

broke off the Nioghalvfjerdsfjorden

glacier and shattered into many small

pieces. The section was floating before

it broke off so will not directly cause the

sea level to rise but scientists said this

would still probably occur because ice

lying on land was likely to flow more

quickly into the ocean.

The Geological Survey of Denmark

and Greenland, which detected the

calving of the ice shelf, said: “The last

few years have been incredibly warm in

northeast Greenland and this appears

to be a progressive disintegration.”

A study last month revealed that

Greenland lost a record 532 billion ton-

nes of ice last year, exceeding the previ-

ous record in 2012 by 15 per cent. Melt-

ing of the Greenland ice sheet is one of

the main causes of the rising sea level.

Dr Jenny Turton, a polar researcher

at Friedrich-Alexander University in

Germany, told The Times: “Small mass

loss through calving has been experi-

enced since the early 2000s [which is]

as long as we have data for, but normal-

ly these are on the scale of two to five

square kilometres per year, whereas in

the last two years, this was 50 square

kilometres per year.”

One small dig for mankind

3D printed

lunar base

Robot miners

Regolith

harvester

Water storage Helium-3 storage

What else could be mined?

Water: to fuel craft travelling

to further destinations

Regolith: material covering the moon’s surface can be broken down to

produce water, oxygen and Helium-3, which could fuel future nuclear fusion

reactors and potentially meet Earth’s energy needs for hundreds of years

Gold: used in jewellery, dentistry,

electronics, medicine and

aerospace

Platinum: used in chemical

processes and medical devices

Rare earth metals: found in

electronics, TVs and computers

Regolith

Illustration: Paul Dimare