NASA Now Accepting Applications From Companies That Want To Mine the Moon

cold fjord writes "The Verge reports, "NASA is now working with private companies to take the first steps in exploring the moon for valuable resources like helium 3 and rare earth metals. Initial proposals are due tomorrow for the Lunar Cargo Transportation and Landing by Soft Touchdown program (CATALYST). One or more private companies will win a contract to build prospecting robots, the first step toward mining the moon. Final proposals are due on March 17th, 2014. NASA has not said when it will announce the winner."

Comments

Re:Space 1999, Sorta

[msauve]

Moving mass from the Moon to Earth would have no effect on the orbit. The orbital period is dependent on the sum of the masses.

Re:I need NASA's permission to mine the moon now?

[Trevin]

The Moon Treaty (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_Treaty) is only signed by 15 members of the United Nations, and by none of the countries which engage in manned space flight. So doesn’t have any legal force.

Re:Can we just mine the dark side?

[SleazyRidr]

I can't tell if you think that is a possibility, or it you're just trolling. Look at this picture of how far away the Earth is from the moon: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2... The moon is both incredibly large and incredibly far away. The idea that we could affect it to the extent that you could see it from Earth is completely ridiculous. Look at the "dark side" of the Earth as seen from the moon: http://sciencenordic.com/what-.... If all the lights on Earth don't make an impression to the moon, then nothing we'd even think about putting on the moon will have any noticeable difference to us.