Airbus to help build Mexican Moon-mining automata
- Reference: 1632725947
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/09/27/airbus_mexico_dereum_moon_mining_mou/
- Source link:
The aerospace company will work with MSA and a startup called Dereum Labs to develop "an end-to-end process from regolith identification and capture to extraction of resources".
The three plan to create a "ground demonstration concept" for whatever hardware they determine is needed to "extract oxygen and metal, or to mine water".
[1]
Dereum is an – ahem – interesting outfit: the Mexican company plans to launch a pair of rovers to the Moon in 2022, and to fund the expedition with advertising.
[2]Report details how Airbus pilots saved the day when all three flight computers failed on landing
[3]Euro space boffins hatch comms satellite hijack plan to save Earth from extinction
[4]ESA signs off on contracts for lunar data relay and navigation
But [5]the company's web site and social feeds offer no details on who will launch the rovers. And the company Twitter feed recently [6]featured CAD designs for the rovers, without suggesting the devices' final configuration has been decided or that they've been built. Indeed, images of the rovers posted by Airbus depict an entirely different design.
[7]
Airbus' moon resource extraction concept.
Click to enlarge
Airbus is much closer to reaching Luna, as its Ariane launchers have proven reliable and it has a strong record building satellites, cargo craft that have reached the International Space Station, and components of the ISS itself. The company is also involved in an ESA project to orbit comms satellites around the Moon.
But no delivery date for the concepts the three entities plan to create has been mentioned.
[8]
Airbus and Mexico are not alone in seeking tech to extract resources on the Moon. The Artemis Accords governing NASA’s forthcoming lunar missions include a legal framework to make moon mining permissible, and Japan has signed up to the pact. China has already started surveying the Moon for resources it hopes to use in-situ when its planned lunar base welcomes its first crew in 2030. India’s [9]Chandrayaan-2 moon mission also had resource surveys as one objective ®
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[1] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YVGWaSaTL50Wq@dkxZo--AAAAFY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2021/09/06/a330_computer_failure/
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/13/airbus_commsat_crashing_plan/
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2021/05/21/esa_moonlight/
[5] https://dereumlabs.com/jaguar1.html
[6] https://twitter.com/KarlozDuarte/status/1441343185029009416
[7] https://regmedia.co.uk/2021/09/27/handout_airbus_msa_moon_mining_concept.jpg
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YVGWaSaTL50Wq@dkxZo--AAAAFY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2019/09/06/vikram_lunar_lander/
[10] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
What resources on the moon ...
... can be extracted profitably?
Serious question. In order to profit, one must have a market. Not much market on the moon, and will not be for a long, long time. If ever. As for shipping bits of moon down to Earth for sale, what up there is worth so much more than what we have here on Earth to justify the cost of shipping?
Makes zero sense.
Re: What resources on the moon ...
Well I don't know about bringing resources back, but there may well be a business in transporting Underpants Gnomes to the moon...
1: Get to moon
2: Get moon
3:?
4: PROFIT!!!
Although, as the costs fall, there will be a short window of time where the price of 'Moonrock' here will justify the cost of going and getting it...
Re: What resources on the moon ...
Depends on your definition of "profit".
If you have a base on the moon any resources that can be sourced from the moon rather than dragged up from Earth is a plus on the profit/loss account.
This is what it's about, resources to keep moon base occupants alive as well as fuel for rockets either back to Earth or out to Mars.
Re: What resources on the moon ...
There are some reasonably new (discovered within the last decade) steel making processes that produce oxygen as a by product.
Given the Moon has a similar geological makeup to the Earth, being able to produce both steel and oxygen at the same time would provide more than enough incentive to setup shop up there. Producing new space ships on the Moon, for example, with its much lower gravity makes much more sense than building them on Earth.
Ariane were planning a public/private jaunt to the moon to arrive some time in 2023 so perhaps this is a part of that plan.