“Some countries have already begun to compete”: Russian geochemist on exploration and mining on the moon

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— The Moon is the same geological object as the Earth, Mars and other planets.

And therefore, before drilling, you need to answer the question: why, where to drill and to what depth.

The entire surface of the Moon is covered with a loose layer of regolith, which was formed as a result of meteorite bombardment of its surface.

On the Moon, we can see the so-called seas - dark spots filled with basalts.

There, the average thickness of the regolith is about 4–5 m, and in the most ancient continental high-mountain regions it is 9–10 m. Therefore, drilling depths of up to 15 m on almost the entire surface of the Moon are sufficient to obtain a stratified core of the regolith for its entire thickness down to the underlying rocks.

The regolith has a complex layered structure, where each layer is an ejection from the surrounding crater - the larger the crater, the farther the ejecta fly during its formation.

Drilling the Moon will allow scientists to trace not only its entire geochemical history since the formation of the rocks underlying the regolith, but also to find out how the composition of the solar wind and the activity of the Sun have changed over 4 billion years, since the gases of the solar wind have been preserved in particles of regolith from its most ancient layers to the youngest.

Drilling rigs for work on the Moon are being developed both in Russia and in other countries.

Drilling on the Moon is not difficult: the technology is about the same as on Earth.

The deepest well on the satellite of our planet was drilled to a depth of 3.2 m on the Apollo 17 expedition.

The Soviet automatic station "Luna-24" drilled to a depth of 2.18 m and delivered a regolith core to Earth.

The main difficulty lies in the materials and equipment that must operate on the Moon in a vacuum and at temperatures from +150 °C to -150 °C.

But these problems have long been resolved - drilling rigs and scientific instruments work on the Moon and Mars, and even in even more extreme conditions on Venus.

In order to obtain samples of lunar rocks lying at a depth of tens and hundreds of meters and even kilometers, it is not necessary to drill to such a depth.

When an impact crater is formed, rocks from the depth are ejected to the surface, forming the so-called shaft.

The rocks ejected from the maximum depth are located closer to the crater.

— What other research is being carried out in the field of mining in space?

How is this area developing?

— Scientists in Russia and other countries are now actively engaged in this area.

In general, such resources can be divided into two categories.

The first is fossils that are either absent on Earth or their volumes are limited.

Such compounds can be delivered from other planets to Earth.

The second is the resources that astronauts will need during the colonization of other planets.

It is they who are of the greatest interest.

At the initial stage of the development of other planets, for the life support of the colonist, first of all, water and various gases will be needed.

According to scientists, about 800 kg of resources per year will be spent per person.

And another 200-300 tons of oxygen and hydrogen will be spent on rocket fuel to provide them with launches from the Moon and a transport bridge with the Earth.

Shipping such cargo from our planet would be too expensive.

Therefore, the way out can be the use of locally mined resources.

Especially if we talk about the Moon, then it has all the fossils necessary for potential colonists.

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• © Stocktrek

The development of technologies for their extraction and storage on the surface of the Moon is the main task that scientists have to solve.

However, these efforts will pay off in the early years of lunar colonization.

Such studies are already underway, including at our institute.

Only if mankind receives these technologies, we will be able to begin the exploration of deep space.

We can say that the Moon is the first step towards this.

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— The study of lunar soil samples with solar helium isotopes allowed scientists to test the hypothesis of a proton-proton cycle of nuclear fusion in the depths of our star.

The proton-proton cycle is a set of thermonuclear reactions during which hydrogen is converted into helium in stars.

As for the use of helium-3 in the thermonuclear energy of the future, such ideas arose as early as the 1980s.

Helium-3 can be used as fuel for thermonuclear reactors, and in the course of such a reaction, unlike other types of fuel, radioactive waste is not released.

There is practically no helium-3 on Earth, and there are significant reserves on the Moon.

Helium accumulated in the regolith due to the influence of the solar wind.

Moreover, in some minerals contained in regolith, it is much more than in others.

Therefore, there are areas on the Moon with a high concentration of helium-3,

• thermonuclear plant

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• © Jean-Marie HOSATTE

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— We can say that the lunar regolith has all the useful resources.

For example, there are significant reserves of water, which were brought with them by meteorites and comets that bombarded the surface of the Moon.

In its polar regions there are deposits of water ice - there, one ton of lunar soil contains about 50 kg of water, and this is a high figure.

By the way, Mars also has water.

When this planet lost its atmosphere, its surface cooled, and as a result, the water in the Martian soil was preserved in the form of ice.

On Earth, such areas are called permafrost.

Water and volatiles could be used to sustain lunar bases, create rocket fuel in situ, and fuel spacecraft for deep space exploration.

This is a topical area that scientists around the world are engaged in.

There are many different metals on the Moon.

For example, there is titanium, in the equatorial region in marine basalts, the concentration of ilmenite (the ore mineral of titanium) can reach 20%.

However, unlike volatile components that can be used directly on the surface of the Moon, with the metal everything is more difficult, its extraction and use on the spot is a matter of the distant future.

The use of resources from asteroids is also determined by the tasks that will be set during the colonization of the Moon and deep space.

So far, the delivery of resources from asteroids and other planets to Earth is not economically feasible, primarily because our planet still has large reserves of minerals.

Manned space expeditions are especially expensive - about ten times more expensive than automatic ones.

Therefore, all countries have concentrated on the creation of robotic systems.

— How will mining in space be different?

Is there equipment now that can operate in such conditions in industrial mode?

- The equipment in this case requires different ones - depending on the form in which fossils are found on other planets.

All promising lunar resources are either concentrated in a loose layer of regolith (for example, volatile components) or are already enriched in the regolith, that is, in fact, ready for their further enrichment and isolation (for example, ore minerals).

The most valuable lunar resources at the present stage of lunar exploration, the need for which will only increase, are water, hydrogen, oxygen and other gases and their isotopes.

- A few years ago, the US Congress approved a bill regulating the mining of minerals on the Moon, asteroids and other celestial bodies.

In particular, commercial enterprises were allowed to transport, use and sell such minerals.

Doesn't this contradict the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, which declared outer space a zone free from private property?

“The Outer Space Treaty is just a convention.

Therefore, now there is really a need to develop binding legislation.

In principle, humanity already has a similar experience - during the Great Geographical Discoveries, it was also necessary to decide on the ownership of new lands and resources.

• titanium ore

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• © Monty Rakusen

As for the law adopted in the United States, it should be noted here that we are talking about the right to extracted minerals, and not to areas of the planets where they can be mined.

However, some countries have already begun to compete in an effort to stake out the most profitable parts of the moon.

The fact is that there are few territories that have rich reserves of resources and at the same time are good landing sites illuminated by the Sun.

In such areas, it is possible to organize the extraction and production of rare resources, which can permanently provide a strategic advantage in the exploration of the Moon and deep space.

No wonder there is now a competition between the American space program "Artemis" and the Chinese manned program.

Their goal is to take the best places on the Moon by placing automatic scientific stations there to begin with.

As part of our research, we also studied several such sites at the South Pole of the Moon.

On some of them, the illumination reaches 80%, that is, the night occupies only 20% of the lunar day.

This will allow almost unlimited generation of solar energy for the needs of the lunar mission.

- When will the reserves of earthly resources be depleted and it will become necessary to extract all the minerals from space?

“If this happens, it will not be very soon: not in this and not even in the next century.

Now technologies are being actively developed for the reuse of waste, scrap metal, etc.

We are still far from exhausting the earth's mineral reserves.

There are still many unexplored resources or deposits that are simply unprofitable to develop.

So it is unlikely that in the foreseeable future there will be an urgent need to deliver space fossils to Earth.