Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science » in reply to Time to make some difficult decisions

re: Time to make some difficult decisions
gbaikie — (archived)

The CAIB had a task and they did an excellent job.
NASA needs to determine if there is minable deposit of water on the Moon. This idea is not what NASA does after ISS and Shuttle, nor is there really any connection between the Shuttle & ISS and this job of exploring the Moon. NASA needs to determine if there is minable deposit of water on the Moon, starting now. IMO there is no other thing which is more important than answering this question- can water on the Moon be commerically mined? Now, when I say important, most people probably translate this to mean "worth spending huge globs of money on it by starting a huge program" and this is NOT what I mean. I mean a total program cost of 5 billion dollars- and spending any more then 5 billion dollars means the program is complete & utter failure. Look at this way, doing this could be easy, compared to the private sector actually mining the water at a profit.
Now, if NASA "feels" this is not possible. Then I think they should do the following: 1) Have NASA try to determine what it considers is a minable concentration. 2) offer 1 billion dollars to anyone who can find this concentration anywhere on the Moon.
It's a go or no go decision; what are they waiting for?

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