The business of returning to the Moon

Nau espacial

The recent failure of the private mission Peregrine One, built by Astrobotic Technology and launched by the United Launch Alliance, which planned to make a robotic descent on the lunar surface and failed due to a propulsion failure, has nevertheless served to make it clear that, as was the case fifty years ago, the moon has once again become an important playing field. The big difference is that now the players are not only the major space powers, but also private enterprise. And if private enterprise is involved, surely it is because there is a lot of profit in gaining control of the moon.

In addition to Astrobotic Technology, Elon Musk’s SpaceX, Amazon CEO’s Blue Origin, and Virgin Galactic, among other companies, are currently seriously committed to returning to the Moon (either to land on it, or at least orbit it). On the government side, NASA is finalising the different phases of its Artemis programme, which aims to land humans on the lunar surface before the end of this decade, and has already successfully flown the first (unmanned) stage of the project in 2022. Japan has also just achieved a soft (if somewhat bumpy) landing on the Moon with its SLIM mission. But it would not come as a surprise if this time the new moon race is won by another superpower, as China is on a very good pace with its Chang’e lunar exploration programme, stringing together success after success, and their goal remains to land humans within the next decade.

But why go to the Moon, and why have we not returned sooner? The answer to the second question is that doing so was tremendously expensive and unsafe, and the potential benefit might not outweigh the losses. But rocket launching has been getting safer, more reliable and, with the advent of reusable rockets, cheaper. The economic balance has suddenly shifted, opening the door to big lunar business, which, according to the Northern Sky Research report, is expected to make a profit of $216 billion over the next decade.

A large part of it will be due to the return of investment of the technological developments involved in making such a hostile environment habitable: the design of lunar habitats, water recycling, obtaining oxygen from the substrate, radiation shielding… technological developments that are sure to have unforeseen applications here on Earth. Another part will be due to the high added-value products that can be created for Earth in low gravity – in the fields of agriculture, biology, chemistry, new materials, and so on – not to mention, of course, lunar tourism.

But the main benefit will come from mining: compared to the Earth’s depleted (and inhabited) surface, the Moon is an unexplored place with many mineral resources, where new and potentially valuable materials could be discovered. And, above all, because it is abundant in helium-3. This isotope is found abundantly in the solar wind. On Earth it is stopped by the atmosphere, but on the Moon it manages to deposit on the surface and is relatively easy to collect. And helium-3 is an ideal fuel for nuclear fusion. If this energy source becomes viable (and there are many indicators that the time may be near), the Moon will be like a vast open pit of oil (or spice, if the reader is a fan of Dune), and the company or nation that dominates the supply will control the world.

© Mètode 2024 - 121. Everything is chemistry - Volume 2 (2024)
Researcher at the Astronomic Observatory of the University of Valencia.