We're Miners on the Moon, We Carry a Harpoon

Tuckerfan · Apr 14, 2017

Trump transition team asked NASA about mining on the moon.

Trump's transition team asked NASA about mining the moon

President Donald Trump's proposed 2018 budget calls for big cuts to the EPA and Department of Energy, but NASA's budget would only be cut by one percent. It looks like Trump has had designs on NASA that include potential moneymaking activities as well as mining the moon for resources. This comes from documents obtained by Motherboard through a freedom of information act request. According to those documents, Trump's agency review team (ART) asked NASA to "provide data and examples of how NASA does technology development (perhaps even in the form of products) when working with industry -- for example, types of contracts/partnerships and IP arrangements."

In its response, NASA noted that as its technologies mature, "appropriate technologies are transferred to industry and commercialized through multiple programs and approaches to benefit a wide range of users ensuring the nation realizes the full economic value and societal benefit of these innovations." The agency also made it clear that it was in favor of for-profit space exploration -- indeed, NASA has worked with plenty of commercial space enterprises in recent years, particularly in the low Earth orbit.

"NASA envisions a future in which low Earth orbit is largely the domain of commercial activity while NASA leads its international and commercial partners in the human exploration of deep space," the agency wrote. So while Trump's motivations may sound a bit sinister on the face of things, it's about getting as much back as possible from the research and investments NASA makes and not necessarily about Trump lining his pockets with cash from commercial space endeavors.

Similarly, Trump's ART also asked about what sort of resources could be mined from the moon. NASA noted that getting a sample from the moon's south pole was a "high scientific priority." That area of the moon is believed to have water, hydrogen and methane that is relatively easy to mine; NASA called those resources a "critical long-term resource" that can benefit future human missions to the moon and potentially beyond.

However, the catch with this potential plan is the Outer Space Treaty, signed by the US and 104 other countries. That treaty states that "the exploration and use of outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, shall be carried out for the benefit and in the interests of all countries, irrespective of their degree of economic or scientific development, and shall be the province of all mankind." If Trump wants the US mining valuable resources from the moon, it sounds like it needs to be ready to share its learnings with the rest of the countries who've signed the treaty.

Motherboard uploaded the entire 94-page response it received to its FOIA request here. One overarching theme that Motherboard found was that while NASA was open to discussing commercial endeavors, the agency also tried to emphasize the fact that its research was primarily for scientific purposes -- something that may seem obvious to most but that nonetheless needed to be noted.

The agency's Science Mission Directorate "works to answer fundamental questions about the earth, our solar system and the universe" -- NASA also said that "answering these questions will have transformative impacts on our scientific understanding and on our human culture." Those goals might not align with money-making endeavors -- but fortunately NASA's budget is largely intact under Trump thus far, so hopefully the agency will be able to do most of its work without interference.
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On a related note:

Could Moon Miners Use Railguns to Launch Ore into Space?

The United States Navy fired a projectile at Mach 6 during a recent test with an electromagnetic railgun, suggesting that early ideas about using such tech to launch payloads from the lunar surface might not be so sci-fi after all.

Mach 6 (six times the speed of sound) is 4,567 mph (7,350 km/h). The escape velocity at the moon is just a shade faster than that — 5,300 mph (8,530 km/h).

The Office of Naval Research work on the EM Railgun launcher is being pursued as a long-range weapon that fires projectiles using electricity instead of chemical propellants.

Magnetic fields created by high electrical currents accelerate a sliding metal conductor, or armature, between two rails to launch projectiles.

In 1974, Princeton professor and space visionary Gerard O’Neill first proposed using an electromagnetic railgun to lob payloads from the moon.

"Mass drivers" based on a coilgun design could be adapted to accelerate a nonmagnetic object, O'Neill suggested. One application he proposed for mass drivers: tossing baseball-size chunks of ore mined from the surface of the moon into space, where they could be used as raw material for building space colonies and solar power satellites.

O'Neill worked at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with Henry H. Kolm and a group of student volunteers to construct a mass driver prototype. Backed by grants from the Space Studies Institute, later prototypes improved on the concept, showing that a mass driver only 520 feet (160 meters) long could launch material off the surface of the moon.

An official at the Office of Naval Research, contacted by Inside Outer Space, said this of O'Neill's seminal work on mass drivers: "Very interesting proposal to use electromagnetic launchers for space vehicles. Considering the fact that the railgun is working with a small hypervelocity projectile, and requires significant power and thermal management, I suspect working out the details for movement of larger space vehicles/payloads is a long way off.

"But I also believe that current efforts will be successful, and electromagnetic thrust will eventually be considered for other applications, including space," the official added.

You can check out a video showing work on the U.S. Navy's EM Railgun here:

O'Neill, who died in 1992, founded the Space Studies Institute (SSI) in 1977 with the hope of opening the vast wealth of space to humanity. For more information on SSI’s ongoing work, go to: http://ssi.org/
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Yeah, I've read the novel, I know what's coming next....

Dayton Kitchens · Apr 14, 2017

You didn't know that mass drivers were first proposed for sending out materials mined on the moon about FIFTY years ago?

I guess Elon Musk hadn't mentioned it then.

Tuckerfan · Apr 14, 2017

Dayton3 said: ↑

You didn't know that mass drivers were first proposed for sending out materials mined on the moon about FIFTY years ago?

I guess Elon Musk hadn't mentioned it then.
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No, that's why I linked to Robert Heinlein's 1966 novel The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.

Dayton Kitchens · Apr 14, 2017

Sorry Tuckerfan.

I don't follow every link some guy on the internet provides.

Especially at wordforge

Tuckerfan · Apr 14, 2017

Dayton3 said: ↑

Sorry Tuckerfan.

I don't follow every link some guy on the internet provides.

Especially at wordforge
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So, uh, what did you think that the link, "Yeah, I've read the novel, I know what's coming next...." could have possibly been referring to?

Will Power · Apr 15, 2017

I wish we had a stable Moon base, bases actually. One on the side facing Earth, & one on the Far Side of the Moon.

The Moon having stable bases would make exploring the rest of the Solar System, & space in general, easier.

steve2^4 · Apr 17, 2017

Tuckerfan said: ↑

Yeah, I've read the novel, I know what's coming next....
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Sentient computers? TANSTAAFL.

Dayton Kitchens · Apr 17, 2017

The Esquire of Gothos said: ↑

I wish we had a stable Moon base, bases actually. One on the side facing Earth, & one on the Far Side of the Moon.

The Moon having stable bases would make exploring the rest of the Solar System, & space in general, easier.
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Bases on the moon would do nothing to make exploring the rest of the solar system easier.

Forbin · Apr 17, 2017

The Esquire of Gothos said: ↑

I wish we had a stable Moon base, bases actually. One on the side facing Earth, & one on the Far Side of the Moon.

The Moon having stable bases would make exploring the rest of the Solar System, & space in general, easier.
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There's no way to have stable bases on the moon until we get better spacesuits for horses.

mburtonk · Apr 17, 2017

steve2^4 said: ↑

Tuckerfan said: ↑

Yeah, I've read the novel, I know what's coming next....
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Sentient computers? TANSTAAFL.
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Lots of sex?

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We're Miners on the Moon, We Carry a Harpoon

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We're Miners on the Moon, We Carry a Harpoon

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