Economic Considerations
This is one major reason it's better to make materials on the Moon than bring them from Earth.
What is the high cost of transporting materials from Earth?
The Moon's gravity
What is 1/6th of earth's gravity?
Equipment to collect and store power from the lunar days.
What are solar panels?
One primary resource to extract.
What is water ice?
This international agreement sets the rules for responsible Moon exploration and using lunar resources.
What are the Artemis Accords?
It can cost between this much to send just one kilogram of material to the lunar surface.
What is $500,000 to $1.8 million?
Because the Moon has no atmosphere, mining equipment is exposed to this harmful factor.
What is radiation from the Sun and space?
Search for ice in shadowed craters.
What are infrared lasers?
One water extraction method.
What is thermal extraction?
What is microwave heating?
What is mechanical crushing?
This treaty says countries can’t claim the Moon but can still extract resources.
What is the Outer Space Treaty?
These missions are expected to build the first infrastructure on the Moon
What are government-sponsored missions?
This sharp and electrically charged material covers the Moon’s surface and can damage mining equipment.
What is lunar regolith?
Recycling solutions that can reduce solid waste and improve the sustainability of longer-term lunar missions.
What is a waste dump site?
Moon's regolith is approximately 45% of an element by content.
What is Oxygen?
This NASA program teams up with private companies to send payloads to the Moon.
What is the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program?
This lunar gas could be worth $3 billion per ton and may be used in fusion power
What is helium-3?
This method separates useful materials from lunar soil, but must work well under vacuum conditions.
What are beneficiation techniques?
Communication with Earth is delayed by about this many seconds round-trip.
What is 2.6 seconds?
This is a method that stands out for its efficiency and suitability in water extraction.
What is Microwave heating?
This group helps different countries and space agencies cooperate on space resource plans.
What is the Interagency working group on Space Resources (ISECG)?
Lunar businesses might wait this long before becoming profitable.
What is 15 to 20 years?
Since it takes 2.6 seconds for signals to travel to the Moon and back, mining systems need this feature.
What is autonomous operation?
Machines on the Moon must survive radiation from this source, which Earth’s magnetic field shields us from.
What are solar flares or cosmic rays?
The process of using resources found at the location of a space mission.
What is ISRU?
USA, Japan, UK
Who are signatories of the artemis accords?