Why not mine the Moon?

A private company in cooperation with NASA is interested in mining the Earth's moon. Moon Express and several other companies are working with NASA on the overall plan to harvest the many useful resources, including such valuable commodities as gold, cobalt, iron, palladium, platinum, tungsten and Helium-3.

This is a fascinating concept, and one surely worth, ah, exploring. We see no reason not to exploit the Moon. Yet will it become cost effective, let alone practical, anytime soon? Those and other questions are beyond us. But as the attempt ties into the the Google X Lunar Prize, an offer of $30 million dollars to the first who can place a commercial spacecraft on the Moon (and meet a few other requirements, outlined here: http://lunar.xprize.org/ )it certainlt sounds as though there are people of means who believe the, uh, ah, prospecting worth the effort.

It will be interesting to see what type, if any, of opposition to the plans might arise. We haven't found anything or anyone so far who has expressed deep concerns or outrage. But we expect it to happen, not unlike all those who oppose Arctic oil drilling and exploration. They'll never be there, they'll certainly never even visit the Arctic (or the Moon) but when their environmental dander gets up so will their blood pressure and indignity. The thought of commercializing otherwise and generally barren landscapes simply drives some folks mad.

What will happen in either direction remains to be seen. But if the private sector can make a go of it at a reasonable cost there's no reason why the idea should not be pursued. That's the conservative position on the issue, and as such where we mildly stand upon the question.