Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Image credit: USGS

Mining the Moon is near at hand.

What better group to assess what’s ripe for the picking on that desolate, cratered world than the U.S. Geological Survey. The name says it all.

When it comes to economic extraction and sustainable management of the Moon’s resources, the USGS has turned its attention skyward to understand the nature, quantity, and quality of available lunar resources.

Illumination map of the south polar region of the Moon. Areas in black receive no sunlight, and areas in warmer colors are illuminated a greater fraction of the time.
Image credit: Base image mosaic from NASA, Arizona State University, and Applied Coherent Technology Corp.

As a government group, the USGS falls under the Department of the Interior. But in this instance, maybe it’s better tagged as an arm of the “Department of the Exterior” for deep space decision-making.

For more information, go to my new Multiverse Media SpaceRef story – “US Geological Survey Prospects the Future of Harvesting the Moon’s Resources” – at:

https://spaceref.com/space-commerce/us-geological-survey-prospects-the-future-of-harvesting-the-moons-resources/

Also, go to this just-released assessment of lunar resource exploration that builds on USGS methodology long in use to appraise resources right here on Earth.

Go to: https://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/1507/cir1507.pdf