Today is the 50th anniversary of mankind’s first landing on the Moon. We celebrate the men and women of the United States , and truly of all nations, who worked to make the event happen, and who celebrate it’s reality. We all look forward to “peace for all mankind”.
Did any other story of the future written by Robert Heinlein look to the future with such a clear gaze. The character, D.D. Harriman in the 1940 science fiction story, The Man Who Sold the Moon, faces the reality that comes to all visionaries. What’s on the moon and how do you get people to buy it. At the very start of the story Mr. Harriman’s partner says to him, “… and don’t give me any guff about tourist trade and fabulous lunar jewels. I’ve had it.”
Today and this week and this year the moon is being sold; and its being bought. Again this is by visionaries. But are they right.? Is there profit to made on the moon? Can whatever resources that lie on its surface or buried in the moon’s crust and its interior be found and recovered for use?
This is the question that some forward thinkers are trying to answer.
The Washington Post’s lead article in the Business section on 17 February, 2019, “The Moon is Suddenly White Hot”, explores the current activities of nations and individuals/corporations who are sending landers to the Moon to start scratching the surface to determine if there are “lunar jewels” that can easily be picked up.
First what are these jewels? First of all there is the question of whether there is water on the moon. This is followed by questions related to the value and usability of minerals and compounds that may be found on the moon and put to use in industry. What are they? Where are they? Can they be mined (picked up even) and processed? Will they need to be brought back to earth for processing or can that be done on the moon, in situ? And is there a profit in it?
We don’t know the answer to these questions yet. That’s why nations and corporations are sinking hundreds and thousands of millions of dollars into making a soft landing on the moon and roving around and finding out the answers to our questions. And at this time we aren’t even talking about getting people, men and women, back onto the lunar surface.
Last year China succeeded in a soft landing of Chang’e 4 on the far side of the moon. Their rover is currently “asleep” as the sun is on the near-side of the moon and the far-side is in truth the dark-side. When the sun returns to the far-side of the moon, the rover, Yutu, will continue its mission of investigating the Moon’s magnetic filed, and analysis of the surface dust as well as a seismometer to study the interior of the moon.
Israel Space Industries (ISI) with their partners attempted to make a soft landing with their Beersheet mission, but their lander failed and crashed into the moon’s surface in April.. The lander mission was to study the Moon’s magnetic field. Initially they said they would try again. But ISI and its partners have said they will not make a second attempt – just yet. I can only imagine that they will make another attempt. There are not only riches at stake, but a good bit of national pride.
India is next up with their Chandrayaan-2 mission. The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) mission has an orbiter, and a lander with a rover. The launch is scheduled for Monday, 22 July. The elements of the mission include the orbiter which will survey the surface of the Moon and the rover which will study the surface material as well as the make-up of the moon to a depth of 10 meters and beyond.
The U.S. has long range plans for landing men and women back on the moon. Russia also has this as a goal. However, we are likely ten years away from either to make a serious attempt. Both nations intend to send unmanned missions to the lunar surface before then.
Mr. Davenport in his Washington Post article, “The Moon is Suddenly White Hot”, comments “… the moon is drawing investors and explorers the way the promise of the American West once did.” A great deal of the effort on the moon will focus on the Moon’s south polar region where it is thought that there may be the possibility of extracting weather from the minerals of the Moon.
That would truly be a “Lunar Jewel”!
Articles reviewed for this post include:
“The Moon is Suddenly White Hot” in the Washington Post ,February 17, 2019, print edition; by Christian Davenport
Israel Today, 19 February 2019, “Israeli spacecraft scheduled for liftoff on Friday”, February 19, 2019: https://www.israeltoday.co.il/read/israel-to-the-moon/
New York Times, India’s Shooting for the Moon, and the Country Is Pumped; https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/14/world/asia/india-moon-landing.html
Chemistry World 15 July 2019, What is the moon made of?, by Mike Sutton, https://www.chemistryworld.com/features/what-is-the-moon-made-of/3010686.article
Art work based on “The Moon is Suddenly White Hot” in the Washington Post ,February 17, 2019 and Robert Heinlein’s book, The Man Who sold the Moon, Signet Edition, 1951.