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Space/Science » in reply to Re: Luna or Mars ?

Re: Luna or Mars ?
gbaikie — (archived)

"Makes me wonder how long would it take for such a program to pay for itself. :-P "
I guess it's the same question as when does the Shuttle program pay for itself? Never comes to my mind.
But it does depend on how you look at it. If you are looking at big picture: Comparing this government spending to other type of spending and the total value of opening up space frontier then if the program only cost 1/2 trillion it could easily pay for itself many times over. For example say there is 5 billion tons of minable water on the Moon and say the average value of that water was $10 per lb (prices will drop as supply increases and costs are lowered), that gives a gross value of 10 trillion lbs times $10 - 100 trillion dollars. And in terms of entire space economy water would be fairly insignificant. Solar power could be a much larger market. And how much is a planet worth? If Mars was developed and if land value was merely a buck or two per acre that would represent a lot of value. Also there is far more minable metals in asteriods then (in total) has ever been mined on Earth. And I am understating this value, it's like placing some dollar value on America before say 17th Century. But this is a pretty unrealistic way of looking it.
The way to look at (from a governmental point of view) is how do we "get there" for the least cost to the tax payer- which includes "getting there" in a timely manner. And the 1/2 trillion Moon/Mars program wouldn't work- it would cost more than 1/2 trillion, take "forever", and it wouldn't be tolerated by the American public (or we would go bankrupt as a nation).

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