The Mutuality Between Science and Commercial Exploration of the Moon (original) (raw)
Related papers
2013
This paper provides an overview of the history of innovation in the mining exploration industry since its rise at the end of the nineteenth century. Innovation in exploration is divided into the following: (1) the target model itself, including the terrain and type of deposit; (2) the methods or technologies for discovering and defining the deposits; and (3) the organization of exploration, including the people involved. Target models evolve in response to the need for new metals, the development of new extraction processes, the price of metals, the opening of new territories to exploration, and unexpected discoveries. Each model grows from pure description to a more genetic interpretation, resulting in the reorganization of ore deposit classification. Methods develop from surface prospecting to geological analogies, then to applied fundamental breakthroughs in exploration involving technologies in the fields of geophysics, geochemistry, geodynamics and information. The organization...
US legal developments in outer space mining
Civitas Hominibus. Rocznik Filozoficzno-Społeczny, 2022
In December 2020 NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) announced a contract with a private company to deliver Moon material to Earth, the first and only contract of this type to be concluded to date. The sum that will be paid for the services of Lunar Outpost company was set at 1 US dollar. Although the arrangement may seem like a publicity stunt to catch international media attention, it spurs a legal discussion on the actual degree of freedom to utilized outer space. This article is focused on describing the USA’s policy and legislation concerning the utilization of natural resources of outer space, and comparing it to the international legal framework of outer space activities. Keywords: space mining, outer space treaty, space industry, appropriation
Mineral adequacy, exploration success, and mineral policy in the United States
Journal of Geochemical Exploration, 1982
Data on copper reserves, recent discovery rates, and historical tonnage-grade relations indicate that the U.S. can be approximately self~ufficient in copper to the year 2000 by mining grades similar to those presently being mined, and given reasonable exploration efforts, the U.S. can supply its demand for about 100 years by mining inferred tonnages above 0.1% Cu. However, recent price trends and the increased cost of mining lower grade ore will increase the price of copper at a rate faster than the general inflation rate, and may lead to significant imports because of their cheaper price. Compilation of the discovery history for copper shows that the Hubbert Gaussian curve is not applicable to predict copper reserves, and may not be applicable for other commodities. A compilation of the value of base and precious metal deposits discovered since 1940, along with meager data on cost and manpower used in exploration, indicates very little decrease in exploration effectiveness over the 40-year interval, in contrast to oil and uranium. Collection of better data on expenditures for metallic mineral exploration is recommended.
Capital Mediators: American Mining Engineers in the U.S. Southwest and Mexico, 1850-1914
2012
, who has been a wonderful advisor during my time at the University of New Mexico. Committee members Liz Hutchison and Durwood Ball are model professors and scholars, and have each provided key support at important crossroads of my graduate career. I am most grateful to all of them, and to the history department at the UNM where I've been a very happy Ph.D. student. I would also like to single out Ron Kline of Cornell University for his staunch support over the years, and his intellectual guidance through the history of technology. As a historian, I am of course indebted to the multitudes of archivists who processed, cared for, and made available the reams of manuscripts I looked through for this project. Over the course of four years of research trips, I've been helped by too many people to name here: the staff at the American Heritage Center, the Arizona Historical Society, the University of Arizona Special Collections, the Beinecke, the Huntington Library, the Harvard College Archives, the New-York Historical Society, the Special Collections at the University of Texas-El Paso, and the Yale University Archives, were welcoming and helpful, even when I requested lost books and unprocessed collections. I am especially lucky to have a family that is so supportive of my education. My parents and brothers continually encouraged me through a very tumultuous decade.
Scope of mining on the moon - a critical appraisal
2011
This paper presents a critical review of mineral resources available on the moon. Samples collected in 1969 by Neil Armstrong during the first lunar landing showed that helium-3 concentrations in lunar soil are at least 13 parts per billion (ppb) by weight. Levels may range from 20 to 30 ppb in undisturbed soils. Quantities as small as 20 ppb may seem too trivial to consider. But at a projected value of 40,000perounce,220poundsofhelium−3wouldbeworthabout40,000 per ounce, 220 pounds of helium-3 would be worth about 40,000perounce,220poundsofhelium−3wouldbeworthabout141 million. Because the concentration of helium-3 is extremely low, it would be necessary to process large amounts of rock and soil to isolate the material. Digging a patch of lunar surface roughly three-quarters of a square mile to a depth of about 9 ft. should yield about 220 pounds of helium-3-enough to power a city the size of Dallas or Detroit for a year. Although considerable lunar soil would have to be processed, the mining costs would not be high by terrestrial standards. Automated machines might perform the wor...
Learning to see: visual tools in American mining engineering, 1860-1920
2008
8 miners themselves to the mining engineers. 7 While noting that the transitions did not occur evenly, Ochs outlined a four-stage model for the periodization of mining in America. During the rushes (e.g, 1849 in California, 1859 in Colorado), untrained miners applied relatively simple, inexpensive techniques. In the early consolidation stage, apprenticeship-trained miners, chiefly from Europe, used more capital-intensive technologies (roughly mid-1850s in California, 1870s to 1880s in Colorado). During the first wave of industrialization, (1880s/1890s to 1930s), college-educated mining engineers gradually took over control of production, automated tools were introduced, and business organization began to change. Finally, after World War II, mining engineers became established, automated mining systems became more common, and a more complex corporate system-Chandler's managerial capitalism-emerged. 8 Other historians attempted to explain mining engineering through the examination of the lives of individual engineers. These include Joshua Clayton, the Janin
48th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting Including the New Horizons Forum and Aerospace Exposition, 2010
As the Space Shuttle, Candarm and Space Station end their useful lives the question "What next?" needs to be considered. Several countries including the USA and China are looking to the future through exploration of the solar system, thus the NASA logo "Earth, Moon, Mars and Beyond". The moon is the first major target for NASA and the recent discovery of water has many eying the moon with new vigour. The reason, it now seems likely that a permanent lunar base is possible by using the natural resources available, in particular recently found water. The ability to break water into hydrogen and oxygen for providing the main necessities of life, rocket fuel and air to breathe make this permanent base feasible. Furthermore, several significant environmental issues will force this permanent base underground. These issues include lunar radiation, solar flares, temperature extremes and micro-meteorites. Lunar radiation alone will force this move to rock shielding protection of astronauts as at least 10 metres of rock cover will be required to protect human, animals and plants.
RAILROADS AND MINING IN THE MOJAVE DESERT AND SOUTHWESTERN GREAT BASIN CALIFORNIA AND NEVADA
Proceedings of the Desert Symposium, 2024
Between 1876 and 2017 thirty-seven railroads were constructed in the Mojave Desert and southwestern Great Basin. This paper addresses the growth of railroads and their links to mining districts over time. Early transcontinental routes that were built through our study area, the Mojave Desert and southwestern Great Basin, were the Southern Pacific - San Joaquin line (1876), and the Southern Pacific (SP) line that linked Mojave to Needles (1883). The SP connected with the Atlantic and Pacific (A&P) at Needles (Topock), which had been built from the east to west from Albuquerque. These two lines both reached Needles at nearly the same time. The Southern Pacific sold their line to the A&P in 1884. In 1885 the California Southern Railroad (a subsidiary of the Santa Fe) connected at Barstow with A&P, creating a new line to the port in San Diego through the Cajon Pass. In 1905 the San Pedro-Los Angeles and Salt Lake (which was purchased in 1921 by the Union Pacific) was completed from Salt Lake City to the port of Los Angeles using some track agreements with the Santa Fe for their line between Colton and Barstow. The Carson and Colorado (C&C) was originally planned to connect Carson City with Fort Mojave on the Colorado River. That destination changed to Tonopah, then Candelaria and finally to Keeler in the Cerro Gordo Mining District. The transcontinental railroads provided a transportation framework from which a network of railroads was later connected. These later railroads primarily served individual mines and mining districts. Following the 1848 discovery of gold in Coloma, California on the American River, gold was discovered all along the western slope of the Sierra Nevada– as far to the northwest as the Klamath Mountains. By the late 1850s other mineral deposits were discovered east of the Sierra Nevada, eventually eastward into Nevada, the Mojave Desert, and Arizona. Construction of the main lines through our study area immediately provided transportation that was less expensive than the mule teams that predated them. Several short lines were built to mineral deposits that were close to the main lines, however distance and demand required the construction of several significantly longer rail lines. There were two long-line railroads dedicated to reaching the Bullfrog (Rhyolite) mining district: Las Vegas and Tonopah (1905) and Tonopah and Tidewater (T&T, 1907). The T&T’s primary destination was the Lila C. Mine in the Greenwater Range east of Death Valley. Changes in United States monetary policy in 1893 and the exhaustion of high-grade deposits led to booms and busts that affected the railroads. Competition from trucks and automobiles also contributed to a reduction in demand for railroad services. Many went bankrupt or were assimilated or merged to survive. During WWII almost all the mining-dedicated railroads in the Mojave Desert and Great Basin were scrapped for much-needed iron to support the war effort. With a few exceptions, today only the original transcontinental lines remain in operation. The Golden Age of the mine railroads that linked remote parts of this area is but a distant memory.