Company Wants To Mine The Moon Using Robots — And They Could Be Doing It In 3 Yeras

Moon Express wants to start mining the surface of the moon for valuable materials. They've set a goal of sending their first robotic lander to the lunar surface by the end of 2017.

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[shawn]

Everyone with these original
"We already screwed up earth, now we screw up the moon." comments.

[scottcryptoreviews]

Pls.. It feels like.. It will be a bad Idea If moon ores are rare on earth.. Companies will Aim to mine the whole moon and replace it with an artificial moon..

[michaellathrop]

"What if we destroy the moon"... yes all that natural biodiversity

[mcninjafull]

You guys are aware that a tiny mining operation won't completely mine out the moon? People in the comments are acting like they are going to mine out half the moon and send it back to Earth. The moons is also massive. Where tf will we store everything

[kimlit]

How...exactly are we gonna "mess up" the moon like we did our planet? As far as I and practically everyone can tell, the moon doesn't exactly have an ecosystem.

[bigfreeze]

This is actually a good idea

Edit: Fixed a typo

[einfachnurleo]

So why would they mine the moon ? Don't we have enough cheese on the earth?

[seamuscallaghan]

3 reasons why mining the Moon is a GOOD thing:
1. There is no ecosystem to destroy, like there is if we mine the Earth. And no, for you people in the comments section who think it'll affect the tides, they're not going to mine out the whole moon. That would be impossible on any relevant time scale. It's too big.
2. It has Helium 3, which could be used to fuel fusion power, the ultimate source of clean energy and one of only realistic options for high-speed human travel through within the solar system within the (relatively) near future.
3. Due to the difference in gravity and the lack of a significant atmosphere, it is easier to move something from the Moon to Low Earth Orbit than from Earth to Low Earth Orbit. Using the Moon as a source of materials for space infrastructure - even basic materials like iron and water - makes way more sense using the Earth, once the lunar infrastructure itself is set up.

[Bax]

"The lander would also carry a payload" THAT NOBODY WILL PUSH GOD DAMNIT!!

[danielg]

Well I already did this in Kerbal Space Program.

[potatotree]

People in this comment section are stupid. The moon weighs 81, 130, 112, 484, 034, 953, 216 tons, a few tons of rock won't kill us.

[witheringrose]

Everyone I the comments is complaining about people complaining about mining the moon
1. They aren't mining the entire moon, just taking samples
2. Don't call people stupid for a misunderstanding from a 1 minute video

[月-oci]

A lot of people don't get the point of this.
Sure we've messed up Earth, but we can always fix it.
First we need to get more materials.

[halseyengrossed]

*We've messed up the Earth, might as well go on to the Moon...*

[ji_Seven]

nobody gonna talk about how the title says “yeras” and not “years”

[dsupredsupre]

WE MUST FIND OIL

*MURICA INTENSIFIES*
MURICA

[ThruThe]

I'm a liberal and I support this idea.

[persimmon]

I approve! Human expansion to the far ends of the galaxy!!

[porkheangheng]

It public company cuz
1. You post it
2. Everyone knows it
3. Now it public even tho it a private

[MrBenwaan]

Does that mean a private company would claim ownership over the moon? Or would they have to be cool with other companies jumping in on their sites if the place was to belong to anyone who could make the trip?