Russian roadmap to Solar System colonisation. Moon is the first step.

[Spendulus]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RGhKzUUaME

No. That one is a different movie.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1772240/

Apollo 18 is a pretty good movie.

Moon, about the guy that gets replaced every three years, not so good.

But hey, don't forget the classics - Destination Moon rocks, and it's on youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsisGSBlQqo

[bryant.coleman]

Apollo 18 is a pretty good movie.
Moon, about the guy that gets replaced every three years, not so good.

Hmm.... I used to like the horror movies in the past. But now I have lost my taste for them. Don't know.... if I feel like I want to watch, then I'll buy either the DVD or the Blu-Ray.  

[Wilikon]

Sorry people!

Nothing can touch this true classic Moon movie...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JDaOOw0MEE

[Nemo1024]

Sorry people!

Nothing can touch this true classic Moon movie...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JDaOOw0MEE

Ah, the memories. But you need to watch it in HD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FrdVdKlxUk

[Wilikon]

Sorry people!

Nothing can touch this true classic Moon movie...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JDaOOw0MEE

Ah, the memories. But you need to watch it in HD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FrdVdKlxUk

Nice. Now we need to go beyond the Moon... Russian style
http://youtu.be/16rktAcZ0AE

[nicked]

The reason that it seems like the US has abandoned its space program is not because they actually abandoned it. It's because they now have something better that they want to keep secret.

[bythesea]

I would rather chose to go to the Mars then Moon. I know the view from Moon is better but Mars is a better choice.

[bryant.coleman]

I would rather chose to go to the Mars then Moon. I know the view from Moon is better but Mars is a better choice.

That will not happen in the near future. Even the most efficient rocket takes 1.5 years to reach Mars. And every trip costs around $100 billion. No country is having that much money right now. 

[supernovax]

If half of the military defense spending is use in space program there will be human settlements in mars right now and we already mining asteroids.

[Wilikon]

So how of that stuff can we extract before the lunar to Earth weight ratio makes the Moon spin out into space?

[Nemo1024]

I remember some SciFi author had a story, where the Lunar colony declares independence and decides to leave Earth orbit (was it Clarke).
To make transport of minerals from the Moon cost-efficient, the system must be balanced - rockets won't do, space lift will. And as they say, what goes down, must come up (or do they). There is always something Earth needs to dump somewhere...

[bryant.coleman]

So how of that stuff can we extract before the lunar to Earth weight ratio makes the Moon spin out into space?

What is there in the moon to extract? Any mining in the moon will be a million times more expensive than doing the same on earth. And none of the major metals are going to run out any time soon.

[Wilikon]

So how of that stuff can we extract before the lunar to Earth weight ratio makes the Moon spin out into space?

What is there in the moon to extract? Any mining in the moon will be a million times more expensive than doing the same on earth. And none of the major metals are going to run out any time soon.

Mining Helium-3 On the Moon
http://youtu.be/94rEqHP9dOQ

[bryant.coleman]

Mining Helium-3 On the Moon
http://youtu.be/94rEqHP9dOQ

Why we need Helium-3, when we have millions of tons of Uranium available on the earth? Considering the difficulty in storing Helium, and the cost of conducting lunar missions, I can't understand the logic.

[Spendulus]

Mining Helium-3 On the Moon
http://youtu.be/94rEqHP9dOQ

Why we need Helium-3, when we have millions of tons of Uranium available on the earth? Considering the difficulty in storing Helium, and the cost of conducting lunar missions, I can't understand the logic.

Helium 3 is now used as a cyro refrigerant, and has a value way way WAY higher than say gold.   It could now be mined on the moon and shot back to Earth and be profitable.   It's future value is in fuel for fusion reactors.  This mining process would have to be automated and robotic to be practical.

There is more titanium OR aluminum in the top several meters of depth of an average square kilometer of the Moon's surface than is mined on the entire Earth each year currently.  Also of course iron.

These surface metals are relatively easy to purify, although the process is very different than what is used on Earth.    They are in oxide form typically.  Many other useful elements and materials.  However the Moon is very poor in C, N, and "volatiles".  As an example, it would be difficult to make plastics on the Moon.

Really the best way to think of the Moon is as one gigantic materials mine....also as a place where operations that have to be done in vacuum, would be extremely easy.  examples, vapor deposition or ion sputtering.

[bryant.coleman]

There is more titanium OR aluminum in the top several meters of depth of an average square kilometer of the Moon's surface than is mined on the entire Earth each year currently.  Also of course iron.

Even if there is a lot of Titanium and Aluminium out there, how will you transport all this back to earth? Do you know the cost of a lunar mission? It runs in to tens of millions of USD.

[Nemo1024]

There is more titanium OR aluminum in the top several meters of depth of an average square kilometer of the Moon's surface than is mined on the entire Earth each year currently.  Also of course iron.

Even if there is a lot of Titanium and Aluminium out there, how will you transport all this back to earth? Do you know the cost of a lunar mission? It runs in to tens of millions of USD.

At the present. The initial step is always the most expensive one. Once a space elevator (or space bolas) is in place, the cost will be minimal.

[Wilikon]

If you guys watched the video the Russians and pretty much every state that can send people into space see Helium 3 mining on the Moon to be cost effective, even with today's technology

[bryant.coleman]

At the present. The initial step is always the most expensive one. Once a space elevator (or space bolas) is in place, the cost will be minimal.

You need to remember that the average distance from Earth to the Moon is 384,400 km. I don't know whether in future technology will ma e that much travel viable for metal extraction.

[FalconFly]

Absolutely noone will set foot on the moon (let alone live/work there) until it either becomes a) profitable to do so or b) offers another tremendous advantage (i.e. military or geopolitical).

As both scenarios are long stretches away, there's simply no actual and real incentive to toss hundreds of Billions of Dollars at such a project. It just doesn't pay off and no individual nation has the pockets deep enough and the tech to pull it off alone.

The technology is mostly there - but the profitable outcome (of whatever nature) is not, especially not for a project of this magnitude.

PS.
The mineral composition of the moon's surface (as discovered so far) makes it rather uninteresting. Reserves of all identified minerals are still more than plentyful here on earth.