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Closer to Deducing the Origin of the Moon
eldavojohn writes "A giant explosion on the sun in January of 2005 allowed SMART-1 (a European spacecraft orbiting the moon) to detect what elements the moon is made up of based on the X-rays from the sun's explosion. This allows scientists to speculate on the moon's origins while seeing data from all over the moon as opposed to the core samples we have collected and returned in the past. From the article: 'Scientists responsible for the D-CIXS instrument on SMART-1 are also announcing that they have detected aluminium, magnesium and silicon. "We have good maps of iron across the lunar surface. Now we can look forward to making maps of the other elements." said SMART-1's Principal Investigator.'"
Actually it is a break even proposition for gold. is at about 625 per ounce...16 ounces per pound, 10,000...the current cost per pound to send something into space ( i dont know what the cost to retrieve it per pound would be, to send it back though) I would assume it is less expensive to send back, time is not exactly a factor, or life support systems etc.
It is difficult to calculate because I couldnt find much info on sending stuff back from the moon, I am willing to bet it is quite a bit cheaper. But the infrastructure on the moon etc ruins any math. It would be break even for gold to be sent into space...and retrieving it would probably be long term profitable. (providing you can find enough gold)
Platinum is 1200 dollars per ounce making it much more possible, if sufficient quantities could be found.
The cargo ship would probably be reasonably priced...no equipment on board, doesnt need to be very fast, just a computer control system and the rockets etc necessary to bring it back in. Could be an interesting proposition.
The phrase "more better" is acceptable English. suck it grammar Nazis
Yeah. Everyone knows Earth has just as much Hydrogen, relative to its mass, as Jupiter. Oh.
Would they actually have to ship it back?
I mean, nobody has seen the gold in Fort Knox in years, but it's been traded around left and right. Plenty of people are willing to pay for pieces of paper saying they own some gold - why not just prove it's there, stake a claim on it, and then sell it here on Earth?
We can have an entire imaginary Moon economy! Awesomeness++!