Should China develope Space Shuttle to transport minerals and resources from Moon

Right now, the Jutu is exploring the Lunar surface for Helium-3 for fusion energy and other minerals such as Uranium.

In the future, I think Space Shuttle would be useful between transport of natural resources from the Moon and back to the earth.

But Space Shuttle re-entry to earth poses potential danger. Maybe China should build station orbiting the earth. Then the Space Shuttle would transport the cargo(natural resources) to the more durable full metal capsule like what they doing now.

The capsule re-entry would be more safe than Space shuttle.

Space Shuttle would be useful in transporting cargo from the Moon to the earth orbiting stations.

So, that's Vision I foresee for China in the mining of the Moon in the future.

Re: Should China develope Space Shuttle to transport minerals and resources from Moo

Just because Helium-3 is more abundant on the moon does not necessarily make to economically viable to actually try and mine it, never mind mine it to send back to earth.

Besides, Helium-3 by itself has relatively little value until someone can get the whole fusion thing to work.

The most realistic reason to set up a moon base and to mine natural resources there would be if one was planning a Mars mission. It could be significantly cheaper to mine water on the moon and process that into rocket fuel rather than transport the fuel from earth on account of the far lower lunar gravity, and hence the amount of fuel needed to escape it.

Depending on the deposits and concerntrations on the moon, it might also be useful to mine and process heavy metals for very basic structures, things like led for radiation shielding for a spaceship to Mars etc.

But that is very much a question of luck, and they would need to fine a big chuck of very pure ore to make any sort of mining and processing effort on the moon worthwhile.

But all of that is decades away at least. Talk of a shuttle to the moon is extremely premature when China has not even returned a sample from the moon yet.

Re: Should China develope Space Shuttle to transport minerals and resources from Moo

I think they should. There's more than He3 on the moon. I see it also as potential to safely test future nuclear war heads without any of the fall out, environmental or human factor to worry about once a scientific bas is established. By the way Wolf what's a "Moo"?

Re: Should China develope Space Shuttle to transport minerals and resources from Moo

plawolf said:

The most realistic reason to set up a moon base and to mine natural resources there would be if one was planning a Mars mission. It could be significantly cheaper to mine water on the moon and process that into rocket fuel rather than transport the fuel from earth on account of the far lower lunar gravity, and hence the amount of fuel needed to escape it.

Click to expand...

Or mine the resources and use them there to power a permanent moon base, that would seem to be the simplest and most practical application.

Re: Should China develope Space Shuttle to transport minerals and resources from Moo

plawolf said:

But all of that is decades away at least. Talk of a shuttle to the moon is extremely premature when China has not even returned a sample from the moon yet.

Click to expand...

I think Shuttle technology has potential and US can revitalize the program in the future. Considering US started the shuttle program in the 70s and China hasn't even begin to tackle it, I don't think its too early for China to lay the ground work for the shuttle now.

Re: Should China develope Space Shuttle to transport minerals and resources from Moo

But most importantly, I think China can change the political landscape in a profound way. On earth, there's very limited room for China to maneuver, everything is tied down. ANy times China make a move, criticism of "change of status quo", and countries are playing the game of "containing China".

But imagine if China spearhead this "Moon Base Mission" of developing shuttle, mining on the moon. I think a lot of countries previously not involved would very willing to pitch in and join the effort. China can invite, Germany, France, Brazil, Iran, countries from South America, Africa, or even India(I imagine indians would be very interested)to join in the effort to develop for this great "Moon Base Mission".

There's an old saying "create your own ladder to climb". If the earth is too established and crowded for China to maneuver, then go to Moon would enable China to create a new field.

Re: Should China develope Space Shuttle to transport minerals and resources from Moo

BigWang said:

I think Shuttle technology has potential and US can revitalize the program in the future. Considering US started the shuttle program in the 70s and China hasn't even begin to tackle it, I don't think its too early for China to lay the ground work for the shuttle now.

Click to expand...

If you mean revitalize the original space shuttle concept, then no, there is no reason to. The original shuttle concept as practiced by nasa during the last 33 years was a blunder, and in many ways a boondoggle. It does not warrant repeating by the Chinese or revitalizing by the US.

Re: Should China develope Space Shuttle to transport minerals and resources from Moo

chuck731 said:

If you mean revitalize the original space shuttle concept, then no, there is no reason to. The original shuttle concept as practiced by nasa during the last 33 years was a blunder, and in many ways a boondoggle. It does not warrant repeating by the Chinese or revitalizing by the US.

Click to expand...

Not the original concept. Shuttle would be used travel between orbiting stations and moon. That's not how US used its shuttle.

capsules would be used for enter/re-entry of earth atmosphere. They would go to the orbiting station first and then drive their shuttle to the moon and back and park their shuttle near the station.

Re: Should China develope Space Shuttle to transport minerals and resources from Moo

chuck731 said:

If you mean revitalize the original space shuttle concept, then no, there is no reason to. The original shuttle concept as practiced by nasa during the last 33 years was a blunder, and in many ways a boondoggle. It does not warrant repeating by the Chinese or revitalizing by the US.

Click to expand...

Whoa there chuck I have to disagree with you there. The NASA space shuttle provided many new scientific and engineering discoveries and lessons about space. Without the shuttle the ISS would not have been built today. Yes maybe I'm a little bias because I lived in Houston where NASA JSC (mission control) is located. The shuttles has its shares of disasters yes, but the over all from the past 33 years has since Columbia was launched it did many missions that no rockets hasn't done lately because of its payload capacity.

Now if China wanted to build a space shuttle it has to be design to its mission and space goals. IMO China should had two types of shuttles. One for the lunar missions and the other for orbital missions. Making one shuttle to do both will be hard on maintenance plus costly delays.

Re: Should China develope Space Shuttle to transport minerals and resources from Moo

of course this is a defense forum, and if you possess shuttle tech and moon base, that will act as serious deterrence against adversaries.

Imagine shuttle carry weapons from moon base to head straight to adversaries geo location on earth.

You avoid the long flight path of conventional ballistic missiles over earth atmosphere.

Practically you delivering weapon bay load at adversaries doorstep and give them no time for response..