NASA Strikes Gold and Water On the Moon

tcd004 writes "The PBS NewsHour reports: there is water on the moon — along with a long list of other compounds, including mercury, gold and silver. That's according to a more detailed analysis of the cold lunar soil near the moon's South Pole. The results were released as six papers by a large team of scientists in the journal, Science Thursday. [Note: Nature's papers are behind a paywall; for a few more details, reader coondoggie points out a a story at Network World.] The data comes from the October 2009 mission, when NASA slammed a booster rocket traveling nearly 6,000 miles per hour into the moon and blasted out a hole. Trailing close behind it was a second spacecraft, rigged with a spectrometer to study the lunar plume released by the blast. The mission is called LCROSS, for Lunar Crater Observer and Sensing Satellite."

Comments

Well, that sure will change the song

[Anonymous Coward]

Twas a Miner 2049'er, and his daughter, Clementine!

She tripped and fell out an airlock.

Re:Well, that sure will change the song

[lgw]

Pave the Earth. Chrome the Moon. Be a man - with finally a place to park.

Rare Earth Metals, from the Moon ...

[PolygamousRanchKid]

The moon men announced that they are diplomatically officially in a "huff" with the Earth, and that no rare Earth metals would be shipped from the Moon to the Earth.

Off the record, sources close to the moon men said, "Get your own damn rare metals from your own planet!"

Sources to close for comfort to NASA officials have commented, "Do we have to bomb the Moon again, until they get it?"

Wouldn't mining the moon be a bad idea?

[Kugrian]

This is a great discovery, but what are we going to do with it? The obvious thing is to mine it out, but wouldn't lightening the mass of the moon have a (probably quite bad) effect on it's tidal effects to the earth?

Re:Wouldn't mining the moon be a bad idea?

[Da Cheez]

This is a great discovery, but what are we going to do with it? The obvious thing is to mine it out, but wouldn't lightening the mass of the moon have a (probably quite bad) effect on it's tidal effects to the earth?

The mass of whatever rare elements we pull off the moon would probably be negligible compared to its overall mass. I would be more worried about the seemingly permanent change in appearance the moon would suffer with mining operations running on it. Without something like an atmosphere, any changes we make will be there for eons. I guess there's no practical reason for it, but I kind of like looking up into the sky and seeing a pristine lunar landscape. Maybe if they only mined the dark side of the moon....

Re:elements

[countSudoku()]

No, they said it was in gold nugget rings, big thick chains, and little post earrings. All of which should be sent straight away to Cash For Moon Gold dot com!

"Dag burnit! Darn NASA done jumped my claim!" -- Grizzled Moon Prospector

Re:Gold?

[magarity]

Jesus christ you're lazy!

That's OK; he's a lot smarter than the science team who are clearly morons for not once taking into account their own spacecraft parts during the years it took to put the program together.