Bigelow Aerospace & NASA Consider Moon Base

Selvaraj,

Great article. In addition to Asteroid water, Cassini has found massive
amounts of water in Saturn's moons. Plus, there's apparently water ice on
the moon, and potentially anywhere not exposed to direct solar radiation to
evaporate it. I would venture to say that supplies of water, oxygen and
hydrogen will not be the limiting factor they were once thought to be.
Instead, once we can get into deep space, we'll probably find plenty of
water resources. That is, after all, the premise behind Planetary Resources
business model, and, looking at their board, I for one believe they'll
succeed. Given any level of success at all, I believe it will precipitate a
new 'gold' rush as companies scramble to get a piece of the pie. And THAT
is gonna make OUR collective day, cause the one thing they'll ALL need is
space habitats, and what most will, by default, become is Space settlers!

From: sraj
Sent: Wednesday, April 24, 2013 1:23 PM
To: spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [spacesettlers] Bigelow Aerospace & NASA Consider Moon Base

The most important requirement for life is water. I think future space
missions should focus on this, whether we search for water on the Moon, the
asteroids or on Mars. So far we know that there was plenty of water on Mars
- once upon a time - (interesting, but that is not what we are looking for).

Selvaraj

A single asteroid could offer up billions or even tens of billions of
dollars (depending on size and composition) in mineral wealth even if it
cost a billion or two to mine. Thats not even factoring the water, which
itself becomes a precious commodity in the decidedly dry climate of space.
As such, initial exploration will focus on water-rich asteroids, as
Planetary Resources appears to view its goal of establishing a means to
harvest and supply water in space to be of equal importance to extracting
precious metals.
http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2012-04/why-mining-asteroid-water-and-metals-isnt-quite-crazy-it-sounds

On 24 April 2013 12:33, Victor Smith wrote: