Space is open for business. After over 100years of extracting natural resources from earth, it looks as though the Planet cannot manage to sustain. Many people have put thought into how best to solve this problem, and many people have concluded that the Moon may hold the answer. Helium-3 is a dust ejected from the sun and brought to the moon from solar winds, since the moon has no atmosphere to reject such particles. Helium-3 happens to be a very potent form of energy, one which scientists say could sustain our energy needs here on Earth for thousands of years. Many companies have begun cost analyses to begin transporting the resources back home from depths in space, including the moon and mars. There is propositions to make the moon safe for mining crews and livable, and no this just isn’t a pipe dream from some rich business men, this is coming, it may already be here. NASA has started a program called the “Constellation program” whose main goal is to have a human outpost on the moon by 2020. This reversion into pillaging for natural resources will likely be carried out on other celestial bodies. One Russian company is built around the idea of fulfilling their goal to procure the helium-3 deposits from the moon and becoming filthy rich off of the product. The downside of such operations to the moon is the pollution that the exhibitions cause.
Say a lunar rocket explodes in space, the material left behind from the explosion will become an inanimate object and stay floating, obstructing what’s behind it for generations to come. This is because of the lack of gravitational pull, the same force of nature that allows our satellites to roam free. All of the materials we leave in space are there forever, there is no natural cycle to their decomposition in an oxygen free, atmosphere free environment. This presents a very problematic case for the scientists and businessmen, who must realize that any debris left in space will be there forever, and could potentially forever inhibit our exhibitions in space in the first place. This permanent problem could change our course for the rest of eternity, more so then our pollution of Earth, which has natural cycles of disposing of harmful waste and debris.
Although this sounds like an exotic idea, I suggest you listen to the TED talk given by Burt Rutan (which I have included in this post) and imagine ways in which we can and will one day venture and utilize space to our needs to sustain on Earth. I have also included in this post a very comprehensive BBC documentary entitled “Moon for Sale” which talks about the growing interest in space commodities.
TED Talk with Burt Rutan
BBC Documentary "Moon for Sale"
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