Humans will soon be able to mine on the Moon. But should we? 4 questions to consider
Humans will soon be able to mine on the Moon. But should we? 4 questions to consider
Imagine you’ve worked 12 hours in hot and dirty conditions. Some of your co-workers have collapsed or been injured. You wish you could just get another job. But you can’t. You’re stuck in space.
2. Could mining change how we see the moon from Earth?
When material is extracted from the moon, dust gets kicked up. Without an atmosphere to slow it down, this lunar dust can travel vast distances.
That surface material is "space weathered" and duller than the more reflective material beneath. Disturbing the lunar dust means some patches of the moon may appear brighter where the dust has been kicked up, while other patches may appear more dull if dust resettles on top.
Even small-scale operations might disturb enough dust to create visible changes over time.
Managing lunar dust will be a crucial factor in ensuring sustainable and minimally disruptive mining practices.
3. Who owns the moon?
The Outer Space Treaty (1967) makes it clear no nation can claim to "own" the moon (or any celestial body).
However, it is less clear whether a company extracting resources from the moon violates this non-appropriation clause.
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Solution for problem #1: Only mine the far side
Solution for problem #2: Everything extracted is divided equally between everyone on the planet
The current plan is that anyone can go there and they can use whatever they mine but they won't have permanent ownership of a territory. This will be fine in the short term when it's just one or two small research bases.
But your second point doesn't really apply. They will just be mining for water and oxygen and carbon and steel. It will be used for self sustaining the base. The moon didn't have an ocean so there aren't concentrated veins of ore. Everything is pretty evenly mixed so it isn't very good for mining rare metals.
Your first point is pretty distressing. The fact that you can take resources but have no claim will lead to violence pretty quickly if it ever gets developed.
The second point diminishes that. Because the dirt is all the same there is no specific reason to covet one pile of dirt over another. It's more like mining seawater for gold.
There is absolutely 0 chance of solution 2 being implemented in our lifetimes, unless by some miracle there's a global revolution that succeeds in establishing a truly egalitarian society. As it stands, any mining operation on the moon is going to make someone very very rich.