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

Posted by samzenpus on from the getting-some-cheese dept.

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."

5 of 251 comments (clear)

  1. I need NASA's permission to mine the moon now? by bazmail · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Hey NASA, race ya.

  2. NASA? by schneidafunk · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I didn't realize NASA owned the moon.

    --
    Some people die at 25 and aren't buried until 75. -Benjamin Franklin
  3. Re:Space 1999, Sorta by Minwee · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Um, the moon has a mass of 73,476,730,900,000,000,000,000 kilograms. A few million tons either way isn't even a dent in that.

    There are entirely different reasons why you should worry about huge masses of rock being produced on the moon and thrown down to Earth.

  4. China and India might dispute that by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Let me get this straight ...

    A country with zero shuttles, zero missions to the moon this century, and zero space stations wants to mine the moon?

    Right ... I'll tell Norway they own North America, ok?

    --
    -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
  5. Re:I'm afraid this means war by Mister+Liberty · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Indeed. And this is also in reponse to the dickhead Anon Coward below (you
    know who you are): China will sooner bury you.

    The moon is not mine to mine, it's not yours to mine. The NASA understands that.
    They just want your money, that is going to the NSA right now (not te missing A).
    They have become a PR machine, launching ideas such as these now and again,
    just to entice non-thinking though plenty aggressive fools -- such as you, anon.