* . *
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact
Friday, July 25, 2025
Earth-News
  • Home
  • Business
  • Entertainment
    Black Box Players presents ‘The Three Musketeers’ – CBS 19 News

    Experience the Adventure: Black Box Players Bring ‘The Three Musketeers’ to Life!

    AP Entertainment SummaryBrief at 1:51 p.m. EDT – Channel 3000

    Entertainment Highlights: Key Updates You Can’t Miss

    ‘Devil Wears Prada 2’ casts Anne Hathaway’s love interest replacing Adrian Grenier’s Nate – Entertainment Weekly

    Devil Wears Prada 2′ Casts New Love Interest for Anne Hathaway, Replacing Adrian Grenier’s Nate

    12 ‘Late Show’ Moments Proving Stephen Colbert Can’t Be Replaced – The Mountaineer

    12 Unforgettable ‘Late Show’ Moments That Prove Stephen Colbert Is Truly One of a Kind

    Canes owner Tom Dundon’s real estate firm eyes entertainment complex near RDU – The Business Journals

    Canes Owner Tom Dundon’s Real Estate Firm Unveils Plans for Thrilling New Entertainment Complex Near RDU

    Inspired Entertainment, Inc.’s (NASDAQ:INSE) Price Is Right But Growth Is Lacking After Shares Rocket 29% – simplywall.st

    Inspired Entertainment Soars 29% but Growth Momentum Falls Short

  • General
  • Health
  • News

    Cracking the Code: Why China’s Economic Challenges Aren’t Shaking Markets, Unlike America’s” – Bloomberg

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Trending Tags

    • Trump Inauguration
    • United Stated
    • White House
    • Market Stories
    • Election Results
  • Science
  • Sports
  • Technology
    Google Cloud Announced as a Key Technology Partner for Odoo Connect 2025 in San Francisco – GlobeNewswire

    Google Cloud Announced as a Key Technology Partner for Odoo Connect 2025 in San Francisco – GlobeNewswire

    Behind the Screens: The Impact of Technology on Real Estate – TRREB

    Behind the Screens: How Technology is Transforming the Future of Real Estate

    Sustainserv and Palau Announce Technology Partnership to Leverage Innovative AI Platform to Advance Sustainability Reporting – Business Wire

    Sustainserv and Palau Team Up to Transform Sustainability Reporting with Breakthrough AI Technology

    Morgan Adamski Joins PwC in Newly Created Cyber, Data & Technology Risk Division – HSToday

    Morgan Adamski Leads the Charge in PwC’s Cutting-Edge Cyber, Data & Technology Risk Division

    Transformative technology, support for food entrepreneurs spotlighted – University of Hawaii System

    How Cutting-Edge Technology and Strong Support Are Revolutionizing Food Entrepreneurs’ Success

    Cold Weather Alloy Opens New Possibilities for Space Technology – Universe Today

    Revolutionary Cold Weather Alloy Unlocks New Frontiers in Space Technology

    Trending Tags

    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • Mark Zuckerberg
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Business
  • Entertainment
    Black Box Players presents ‘The Three Musketeers’ – CBS 19 News

    Experience the Adventure: Black Box Players Bring ‘The Three Musketeers’ to Life!

    AP Entertainment SummaryBrief at 1:51 p.m. EDT – Channel 3000

    Entertainment Highlights: Key Updates You Can’t Miss

    ‘Devil Wears Prada 2’ casts Anne Hathaway’s love interest replacing Adrian Grenier’s Nate – Entertainment Weekly

    Devil Wears Prada 2′ Casts New Love Interest for Anne Hathaway, Replacing Adrian Grenier’s Nate

    12 ‘Late Show’ Moments Proving Stephen Colbert Can’t Be Replaced – The Mountaineer

    12 Unforgettable ‘Late Show’ Moments That Prove Stephen Colbert Is Truly One of a Kind

    Canes owner Tom Dundon’s real estate firm eyes entertainment complex near RDU – The Business Journals

    Canes Owner Tom Dundon’s Real Estate Firm Unveils Plans for Thrilling New Entertainment Complex Near RDU

    Inspired Entertainment, Inc.’s (NASDAQ:INSE) Price Is Right But Growth Is Lacking After Shares Rocket 29% – simplywall.st

    Inspired Entertainment Soars 29% but Growth Momentum Falls Short

  • General
  • Health
  • News

    Cracking the Code: Why China’s Economic Challenges Aren’t Shaking Markets, Unlike America’s” – Bloomberg

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Trending Tags

    • Trump Inauguration
    • United Stated
    • White House
    • Market Stories
    • Election Results
  • Science
  • Sports
  • Technology
    Google Cloud Announced as a Key Technology Partner for Odoo Connect 2025 in San Francisco – GlobeNewswire

    Google Cloud Announced as a Key Technology Partner for Odoo Connect 2025 in San Francisco – GlobeNewswire

    Behind the Screens: The Impact of Technology on Real Estate – TRREB

    Behind the Screens: How Technology is Transforming the Future of Real Estate

    Sustainserv and Palau Announce Technology Partnership to Leverage Innovative AI Platform to Advance Sustainability Reporting – Business Wire

    Sustainserv and Palau Team Up to Transform Sustainability Reporting with Breakthrough AI Technology

    Morgan Adamski Joins PwC in Newly Created Cyber, Data & Technology Risk Division – HSToday

    Morgan Adamski Leads the Charge in PwC’s Cutting-Edge Cyber, Data & Technology Risk Division

    Transformative technology, support for food entrepreneurs spotlighted – University of Hawaii System

    How Cutting-Edge Technology and Strong Support Are Revolutionizing Food Entrepreneurs’ Success

    Cold Weather Alloy Opens New Possibilities for Space Technology – Universe Today

    Revolutionary Cold Weather Alloy Unlocks New Frontiers in Space Technology

    Trending Tags

    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • Mark Zuckerberg
No Result
View All Result
Earth-News
No Result
View All Result
Home Science

Moon mining gains momentum as private companies plan for a lunar economy

July 31, 2023
in Science
Moon mining gains momentum as private companies plan for a lunar economy
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

News

Science & Astronomy

Astronauts watch giant spider cranes 3d-print landing pads on the moon.

NASA has awarded funds to Austin, Texas-based ICON, to develop construction technologies that could help build landing pads, habitats, and roads on the Moon using local lunar resources.
(Image credit: ICON/BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group)

GOLDEN, Colorado – The pace is quickening for using Earth’s moon as a near-term, go-to location to land on, live and explore.

As NASA’s Artemis Program moves forward, so too do long-term plans by small and large firms, academia, along with international space agencies.

That was in evidence at the twenty-third meeting of the Space Resources Roundtable, held here last month at the Colorado School of Mines. A record attendance of some 250 participants spoke on lunar economic models, results of in-the-lab tests, and legal and policy issues. A number of entrepreneurial groups shared their strategies to turn the moon into a hustle and bustle world of marketable services. 

The key glue that anchors future moon use is labeled in-situ resource utilization, or ISRU. ISRU involves the extraction of oxygen, water and other available materials for cranking out rocket fuel and to “gas up” life-support systems. Then there’s pulling out metals on the moon, say to fabricate lunar housing, landing pads, along with other structures and products.

Related: NASA’s Artemis program: Everything you need to know

A group of people in front of some buildings

Twenty-third meeting of the Space Resources Roundtable, held June 6-9  at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colorado. (Image credit: Angel Abbud-Madrid/Colorado School of Mines)

Off-world machinery

“For years it has all seemed like pie in the sky … do this, or do that. This is now becoming so real,” said Angel Abbud-Madrid, director of the Center for Space Resources at the Colorado School of Mines.

“There is also the international pressure to do this,” Abbud-Madrid told Space.com, “and that’s going to keep the program pushing forward. It’s the competition, that’s the reality.”

Abbud-Madrid added that the private sector is also a major force today. He underscored NASA’s work with U.S. groups through the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. That enterprise is to deliver science and technology onto the lunar landscape.

Hopefully, these CLPS missions will tells us something about dealing with the moon, said Abbud-Madrid. First and foremost, he added, is coping with the lunar regolith, the dusty topside of rock and rubble.

Down here on Earth, uses of simulants that imitate lunar regolith have their limitations for comprehensive testing of off-world machinery. On the moon there are electrostatic charges, radiation, lots of dust, and a scant vacuum. And don’t forget to toss in one-sixth gravity for good measure. 

“Let’s go and interact with it. I think that’s going to be key for anything you want to do, be it for extraction, construction, collection, you name it,” Abbud-Madrid said.

A man sits to the side of a projection screen featuring a space resources slide.

Down-to-Earth thinking about living, working, surviving and thriving on other worlds. Angel Abbud-Madrid, director of the Center for Space Resources at the Colorado School of Mines. (Image credit: Barbara David)

Future priorities

For its part, NASA has been blueprinting a long-term vision for ISRU. The space agency has been hammering out goals, objectives, and flagging knowledge gaps in lunar science and the technologies required for making ISRU a dependable reality.

Furthermore, NASA is sorting out its job while also scoping out how best to engage industry and draw upon non-aerospace industry talent. 

At the June 6-9 gathering here an ISRU “Envisioned Future Priorities” was detailed by Gerald Sanders, lead for NASA’s In-Space Resource Utilization, Capability Leadership Team at Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. 

“ISRU starts with the easiest resources to mine, requiring the minimum infrastructure, and providing immediate local usage,” Sanders said. The initial focus is on the lunar south pole region, he said, but ISRU “will evolve to other locations, more specific minerals, more refined products, and delivery to other destinations.’

Sanders noted that efforts are underway to support ISRU approaches, not just backing their development on Earth, but also trial-running them on the moon itself via pilot projects. That way, he said, techniques and technology can be mastered before mission critical hardware is flown to and installed on the lunar surface.

Lunar services

That’s all welcomed news for Ben Bussey, chief scientist at Intuitive Machines, a lunar services company set on providing access to the moon and its orbit for both science and exploration. 

Intuitive Machines (IM) is a major player within NASA’s CLPS initiative to plop down payloads on the moon’s terrain by way of the group’s Nova-C lander. The craft’s maiden voyage to the lunar south pole is targeted for liftoff by year’s end.

IM has also developed a hopper mobility platform, called Micro Nova. This propulsive drone can conduct regional exploration after it is delivered to the lunar surface. Micro Nova is designed to visit locales not accessible to a rover, such as lunar pits, to quickly access floors of large impact craters, as well as lunge into permanently shadowed regions of the moon.

A bald man is standing in front of a science display.

Ben Bussey, chief scientist at Intuitive Machines, a lunar services company. (Image credit: Barbara David)

Water ice: ripe for ISRU?

Bussey is a leading expert on prospective water ice within permanently shadowed lunar craters, such as those at the moon’s south pole – targeted for visits by early crews of NASA’s Artemis program.

As for how much ice is ripe for ISRU, Bussey said he’s not sure we know today if that resource is a reserve. 

“Reserve means that not only is that resource there, but you are able to extract it economically,” said Bussey. There is a cost of prospecting for that ice, extracting and refining it, and then to actually make money after taking those steps, he said. 

More MOXIE!

As prelude to putting all the chips down on the idea of turning on the taps to lunar water ice, Bussey favors an experiment akin to the Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment. 

That technology demonstration is better known as MOXIE. It is now being wheeled around within the underbelly of NASA’s Perseverance rover now perusing Jezero Crater on Mars. MOXIE has repeatedly shown-off its ability to suck in the carbon dioxide-rich Martian atmosphere and puff out oxygen.

“I would love someone to extract a litter of water from the lunar regolith. Show that you can do it. How hard is that to do? Then we can start to talk about it as a reserve,” Bussey said. “You can’t factor in using ISRU in a critical path until it has been demonstrated.”

McMurdo on the moon

Lights illuminate McMurdo Station in Antarctica.

Could infrastructure on the moon take on the look of Antarctica’s McMurdo Station? Lights from the largest research station in Antarctica illuminate Observation Hill just to the south of town. (Image credit: Joshua Swanson/NSF Antarctic Photo Library)

Pulling out oxygen from lunar regolith is on the ISRU to-do list, Bussey added. Also, the moon’s polar regions are rich in well-illuminated areas; sunlight is available for large fractions of the lunar day, roughly 28 days long. That makes it more-friendly than most places on the moon that have 14 days of sunlight and 14 days of darkness, he said. 

“The moon is still the right place to go,” Bussey told Space.com. “Pick a place and you build up infrastructure, because that’s how you get your foothold.”

Bussey said he’s fortunate to have been to Antarctica twice. Both times he went through McMurdo Station run by the United States Antarctic Program, a branch of the National Science Foundation. 

“And because of that infrastructure I could go into the Antarctic plateau and do science and exploration,” said Bussey. “We need to set up a McMurdo on the moon … and the moon itself is McMurdo into the solar system.”

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: [email protected].

Breaking space news, the latest updates on rocket launches, skywatching events and more!

Leonard David is an award-winning space journalist who has been reporting on space activities for more than 50 years. Currently writing as Space.com’s Space Insider Columnist among his other projects, Leonard has authored numerous books on space exploration, Mars missions and more, with his latest being “Moon Rush: The New Space Race” published in 2019 by National Geographic. He also wrote “Mars: Our Future on the Red Planet” released in 2016 by National Geographic. Leonard  has served as a correspondent for SpaceNews, Scientific American and Aerospace America for the AIAA. He was received many awards, including the first Ordway Award for Sustained Excellence in Spaceflight History in 2015 at the AAS Wernher von Braun Memorial Symposium. You can find out Leonard’s latest project at his website and on Twitter.

>>> Read full article>>>
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source : Space.com – https://www.space.com/moon-mining-gains-momentum

Tags: gainsMiningscience
Previous Post

Indian rocket launches 7 satellites to orbit (video)

Next Post

UK spaceport unearths a Bronze Age surprise ahead of 1st rocket launches this year

AdvaMed in Action: Digital Health in the Spotlight at The MedTech Conference 2025 – AdvaMed® – Advanced Medical Technology Association®

Digital Health Takes Center Stage at The MedTech Conference 2025

July 25, 2025
Netanyahu, weighing in on New York mayoral race, rips Mamdani’s proposals as ‘stupid’ – CNN

Netanyahu, weighing in on New York mayoral race, rips Mamdani’s proposals as ‘stupid’ – CNN

July 25, 2025
Google Cloud Announced as a Key Technology Partner for Odoo Connect 2025 in San Francisco – GlobeNewswire

Google Cloud Announced as a Key Technology Partner for Odoo Connect 2025 in San Francisco – GlobeNewswire

July 24, 2025
The year of the women’s-sports bar – The Economist

The year of the women’s-sports bar – The Economist

July 24, 2025
Threat reduction must be coupled with targeted recovery programmes to conserve global bird diversity – Nature

Threat reduction must be coupled with targeted recovery programmes to conserve global bird diversity – Nature

July 24, 2025
Three Recent Texas Science Graduates Receive Fulbright U.S. Student Awards – College of Natural Sciences

Three Texas Science Graduates Honored with Prestigious Fulbright U.S. Student Awards

July 24, 2025
An Extra Sense May Connect Gut Bacteria With Our Brain – ScienceAlert

An Extra Sense May Connect Gut Bacteria With Our Brain – ScienceAlert

July 24, 2025
Nutrition and lifestyle hold the key to overcoming obesity risk – The Hans India

Unlock the Secret to Beating Obesity: How Nutrition and Lifestyle Transform Your Health

July 24, 2025
He ‘found his place in the world’ through football. Then came 15 years of suffering – The New York Times

From Football Dreams to 15 Years of Unyielding Struggle: One Man’s Journey to Finding His Place in the World

July 24, 2025
How Nuclear Fusion Could Revive This State’s Startup Economy – Inc.com

How Nuclear Fusion Could Spark a Revival in This State’s Startup Scene

July 24, 2025

Categories

Archives

July 2025
MTWTFSS
 123456
78910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
28293031 
« Jun    
Earth-News.info

The Earth News is an independent English-language daily published Website from all around the World News

Browse by Category

  • Business (20,132)
  • Ecology (737)
  • Economy (760)
  • Entertainment (21,642)
  • General (16,082)
  • Health (9,799)
  • Lifestyle (768)
  • News (22,149)
  • People (762)
  • Politics (770)
  • Science (15,976)
  • Sports (21,258)
  • Technology (15,743)
  • World (743)

Recent News

AdvaMed in Action: Digital Health in the Spotlight at The MedTech Conference 2025 – AdvaMed® – Advanced Medical Technology Association®

Digital Health Takes Center Stage at The MedTech Conference 2025

July 25, 2025
Netanyahu, weighing in on New York mayoral race, rips Mamdani’s proposals as ‘stupid’ – CNN

Netanyahu, weighing in on New York mayoral race, rips Mamdani’s proposals as ‘stupid’ – CNN

July 25, 2025
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact

© 2023 earth-news.info

No Result
View All Result

© 2023 earth-news.info

No Result
View All Result

© 2023 earth-news.info

Go to mobile version