The idea is being considered.
But wouldn’t companies have already gone there, if they’d thought it might be profitable? Too expensive, right now, to seriously consider it, IMO.
A commenter noted that removing mass from the moon might affect tides, and the ecological / climate consequences of such could be disastrous. Makes sense.
Perhaps we keep our dreams more down-to-earth.
Or, alternately, go elsewhere in the solar system, where there would be little possible repercussions on Earth. When it makes economic sense to do so, that is.
Will S.
February 26, 2012 at 10:15 pm
And let the market decide.
Seriously, why do governments think they need to be involved in this, at this stage? Companies will do it when the returns of doing so make sense, from a business standpoint. Governments should only worry about it once companies are beginning to express an interest.
Carnivore
February 26, 2012 at 10:30 pm
Sounds like those space agencies getting together in their big meeting are looking for a publicity announcement to increase funding for another wasteful pork project.
Will S.
February 26, 2012 at 10:44 pm
Exactly my thinking, too, Carnivore.
Jacob Ian Stalk
February 26, 2012 at 11:04 pm
In addition to the affect on tides, removing mass will increase the moons orbital radius, reduce its density and make our days longer. There are literally millions of ways this will affect life on earth. Very slowly, but certainly. One solution is to replace what we mine with waste from earth.
Svar
February 26, 2012 at 11:08 pm
No.
Svar
February 26, 2012 at 11:08 pm
No, no, no, no, NO!
Will S.
February 27, 2012 at 6:19 am
@ Jacob: “One solution is to replace what we mine with waste from earth.” Great, then eventually, when we’ve completely mined the moon, we can have an orbiting garbage dump in the sky!
@ Svar: I take it you’re not particularly keen on the idea?
Will S.
February 27, 2012 at 6:56 am
I see Clarence in Baltimore, frequent commenter and sometime poster at TC, has a couple comments in moderation. The first one is:
Excuse me, but you are making assumptions about us. I work in science, I studied it at school. I know the moon is pretty big, and I know that it would take removal of quite a bit of mass to ‘seriously’ affect the tides. Note that qualifier ‘seriously’ that you employed, because you do recognize that removal of any mass will have some impact. Well, once mining begins, without human habitation, an atmosphere supporting life that they need to worry about polluting, etc., what limit would companies have? They could mine as much as they wanted to. Mines here on earth, remove tons and tons of ore. How much more, unencumbered by the restrictions of working here on Earth, might they remove there? We don’t honestly know, what ecological and climate impact decreasing the strength of tides by just a small percentage, might have, because it’s not something we can study. Better safe than sorry; we might do well, to symbolically ban mining on the moon, and have governments sign a treaty establishing the moon as a protected zone. Let companies mine the asteroid belt, or the moons of Mars, etc.
Your digression about blowing up the Earth is irrelevant; nobody’s talking about doing that. Nobody’s even talking about blowing up the moon. But if we take millions or billions of tons of ore off the moon (and BTW, the moon having only 1/6 the gravitational field strength of Earth, it would be that much cheaper to mine; the main issue is the cost of getting the equipment and ships there), who knows what the impact of even such a slight amount (compared to the mass of the entire moon) might be? It may not be negligible. Better safe than sorry.
Commenting here is a privilege, not a right; we do have friendly heathens who comment here. But not ones whose first appearance is to sneer “Look how much smarter I am than you!”. Don’t be so sure of that; in any case, your mocking, snarky, show-off tone is unwelcome. Just because the TC crowd welcome you, doesn’t mean we do. In fact, we don’t. Buh-bye!
Svar
February 27, 2012 at 9:26 am
Haha, Clarence, what a stupid arrogant prick. What makes him think that he’ll be welcome here? I’ve seen how he sneers and acts all pompous over at TC; I’ve noticed his contempt for the Christians over there; that won’t fly here.
“Old, strong religion…
lousy science?
Sorry, couldn’t resist.”
Old, effeminate, pussy…
little bitch?
Sorry, couldn’t resist.
Svar
February 27, 2012 at 9:36 am
Hey, Will, look at what the little bitch had to say:
Clarence:
“LOL!
Will S, “Christian”, “scientist” , revealing his true colors.
A coward and a blowhard, who obviously knows nothing of the amount of time or energy needed to remove enough material from the moon to make a difference in the tides.
Seriously, this is one of the stupidest arguments against mining the moon I have ever seen. Stay the fuck out of any science threads of mine in the future, you are not welcome because you are too much of a chickenshit to do the simple calculations that would show you what would have to be done to affect the tides of the moon. If I take a PEBBLE off the moon and bring it back to Earth, I’ve affected the tides. OMG!! Bye cowards.”
What a stupid little fag. A pebble? We weren’t talking mining a little pebble. Learn how to develop an argument.
Now go gather up your skirt and fuck off, missy. You’re cute, but we don’t need to deal with your stupid bullshit. “Coward”. LOL. Look who’s talking. We don’t have to publish your comments if we don’t want to.
Svar
February 27, 2012 at 9:52 am
Btw, am I the only person who noticed that Clarence likes to show up where he and his annoying bullshit is not wanted? And then goes into a little effeminate hissy fit when someone points that out?
Will S.
February 27, 2012 at 10:12 am
He needn’t worry; I am not interested in engaging him on his threads, either.
Touchy, touchy! Poor baby. And no good at arguing; just another Aspie athie who thinks he’s brighter than he is.
Will S.
February 27, 2012 at 10:14 am
Apparently, though, Svar, his annoying bullshit is wanted at TC, since they’ve even made him, an annoying Aspie athie cunt, a columnist at their blog. But we sure as hell don’t want it, and won’t have it.
Svar
February 27, 2012 at 10:48 am
Exactly. He thinks he’s actually smart when his debating skills show otherwise. A pebble? Great argument, dumbshit. I remember when our Aspie “genius” used cutting toe nails as an argument for abortion. He looked like a complete idiot as he does now.
Actually, Will, I have seen how he has been grating on the folks at TC and not just the men like The Deuce. Well, we all make mistakes when it comes to asking people to join our sites; I mean even we did it.
Regardless, if our effeminate Aspie cunt wants to comment at this site, first he needs to take the stick out off his ass, grow a pair of balls, and develop some social skills. Also, learn some humility and not make lame snarky comments like a little bitch.
Will S.
February 27, 2012 at 12:53 pm
Exactly.
I admit, I haven’t spent enough time at TC lately to have noticed that. About time they realized. Too bad it took so long, but oh well.
Svar
February 27, 2012 at 2:09 pm
“Too bad it took so long, but oh well.”
I know it took a while. Deuce and Stewart were never too fond of him and for good reason, but now I see that the others don’t really like having him around either.
Btw, I wonder how long it will take for this Aspie shit to realize that:
a) No cares what he has to say about anything
b) No one even wants him around
Will S.
February 27, 2012 at 3:05 pm
Being Aspie, he’ll probably never clue in.
Kathy
February 27, 2012 at 6:49 pm
Well, Clarence nice of you to drop by with such things to say about Will… NOT!
If you come here to sneer and to be deliberately provocative and rude to Will then expect to get it back in spades, mate.
The truth is, that Will is a very intelligent strong and committed Christian guy. A decent man for whom I have the utmost respect.. We don’t always agree on things (and he will tell you that too!)
However I hold him and his opinions in high esteem.
You.. on the other hand…. Sigh… Well, I am sure you get my drift here…
Svar
February 27, 2012 at 8:45 pm
“If you come here to sneer and to be deliberately provocative and rude to Will then expect to get it back in spades, mate.”
Kathy, Clarence is of the type that thinks he’s beyond reproach. When Will firmly but respectfully responded to his stupid show-offish and snarky tone, Clarence was so surprised that he got his panties got all wadded up and started to blather incoherently.
“You.. on the other hand…. Sigh… Well, I am sure you get my drift here…”
He probably doesn’t. But no matter, I’m sure Clarence is too busy dewadding his panties now. On top of that, as much of an Aspie dumbshit that he is, I am certain that he has enough sense to not return to a site where we have explicitly made it known that he and his attitude are not welcome.
Will S.
February 27, 2012 at 10:47 pm
Clarence is too used to others indulging him, at least initially. When he found that we wouldn’t, he couldn’t believe it, and was apoplectic. Most amusing, really.
Svar
February 27, 2012 at 11:38 pm
Indeed. You’d think that a grown man would have a bit more composure instead of turning into the effete little mess he turned into.
Will S.
February 27, 2012 at 11:54 pm
Sad, really.
Will S.
February 28, 2012 at 7:13 am
@ Kathy: BTW, thanks!
Twenty
February 29, 2012 at 3:57 am
The commercial exploitation of outer space is, to a first approximation, nonsense. It’s really expensive to get to and incredibly difficult to work in. Get back to me when we’re colonizing and exploiting the ocean floor and Antarctica.
Samson J.
February 29, 2012 at 3:18 pm
What we should really be doing is terra-forming Mars.
Will S.
February 29, 2012 at 4:54 pm
@ Twenty: Exactly!
@ Samson: Ha!