Russian Firm Proposes $9.4B Moonbase for Mining

A Russian firm is proposing a MoonBase using existing tech to be completed within 10 years after approval. The goal, I assume, is to mine Helium3 and other precious materials on the Moon. The reason for this ambitious idea? I don't know.

A Russian startup said it is planning to build a lunar base camp for a measly $9.4 billion. But even Russian authorities are cautioning that these plans may be a little too soon. Privately owned Lin Industrial — which counts "World of Tanks" developer Sergei Burkatovsky among potential backers — announced on Wednesday that it was prepared to establish an operational moon base for 550 billion rubles (about $9.39 billion) within 10 years after receiving government approval, according to Russian News Agency TASS. Despite the optimistic projections, Lev Zeleny, director of the Russian Academy of Sciences Institute of Space Research, told TASS, "This is still early to say about construction of a settlement."

The company's chief designer Alexander Ilyin told TASS that the lunar base project would use existing technologies that can be readily produced within five years. This includes the habitation module from Soyuz spaceships, he told the news agency. The lunar camp would need 13 launches of heavy rockets to shuttle the base's required equipment, and then another 37 launches for establishing adequate living conditions, according to TASS.

This is an interesting development, and one that leads me to more questions than answers; especially in light of the current stance between the US and Russia and the threat of WW3 looming. What says ATS?

www.nbcnews.com...

they say private companies will be making the trip some day, not governments
so the pace of new space travel technology might be picking up soon in next decade

a reply to: lostbook

I remember something like this happening in a movie once. I just hope they don't cause the moon to esplod.

I would say i have a greater chance of acquiring a billionaire girlfriend and living to 150.

what are these " existing technologies " of which they speak?

do we have off world habitation someone forgot to tell us about?
and 9 billion sounds way to low.

how much would ONE Apollo mission cost end too end in today's dollars?
what is the to date cost of the ISS infrastructure not counting the cost of shuttle and Soyuz ferry trips?

is it possible yes certainly will a "start up Russian company" achieve it? not a chance
if it ever happens it will be either a very large corperation or a state funded effort.

Great Thread, interesting to think about! Well, if it were to be a real base as in sci-fi movies.....

Mirror.com has a lot more information:

The Russians are planning to construct a moon base, but the bad news is that it won’t be some kind of huge colony for millions of us to live on.

It won’t be a small job – plans suggest that a total of 37 rocket launches would be required to build the base, with 13 heavy carrier launches involved.

Lin Industrial plans to build the base close to Malapert Mountain near the moon's south pole.

The base would eventually be able to house four crew members, which makes it sound less like a moon base and more like a six million quid student house.

There is no fixed schedule for the moon base at the moment, but Lin says that initial shipping and construction would take five years, and the base would be complete within a decade.

a reply to: lostbook

Like living conditions on a moon mining base wont be bad enough, it will be a russian moon mining base - complete with rusty buildings and a lunar surface riddled with tank tracks.

Sounds like a horrible failure of epic proportions, I say go for it!

China proposed mining there months ago too. They may as well catch up to the !@#. A Lot of titanium and helium 3 there. Both will be needed for future !@#$%^&*

Space entrepreneurship, these are exciting times we live in Even if these are just proposals and ideas. Perhaps private companies is where the true innovation will come from. community.sk.ru...

Apparently the moon's mineral rights have already been secured by the ROC Consortium ( ROC-Resnick/O'Neill/Cramer).

In terms of legal standing this is an untested claim however the general concensus seems to be that if a private entity can get to the moon, mine it and return with the results they are legally entitled to profit from their endeavors.

I especially like the CV's of O'Neil and Resnick : "Dr. Timothy R. O'Neill, (considered the World Expert on camouflage) and Guy Cramer, (considered the world expert on Air Ions by NASA JPL and the leading expert for camouflage design."

When you also tie in Cramers background in Ionic tinkering it does make you wonder why these three seem so enthused with the possibilities ....maybe they know something that the taxpayer doesn't.....

a reply to: ShayneJUK

what are these " existing technologies " of which they speak?

You know...the one from the 60's and 70's

a reply to: sicksonezer0

I envisage it will be very much like this eventually.....quite a sad existence.



CX.

a reply to: ShayneJUK

As far as I know, we have the technology. It's just actually putting this technology in place that is too expensive to make it worth while. Not to mention a logistical nightmare both on the ground and "up there".

They'd also probably start with a budget of 9 billion, but when it's all said and done it'd probably have substantially risen beyond that. I can only imagine the astronomical costs! (Hehe, pun.)

a reply to: Auricom

Not to mention a logistical nightmare both on the ground and "up there".

whatever do you mean...last time I checked...it all went swimmingly...numerous times. Now, the commie bastard Ruskies are no NASA of course...but you know what...the thing is...the Russians are only now starting to develop the tech from the US 70's...so in reality...they have absolutely perfect conditions to recreate Apollo flights. If they advanced much further than the 70's...the trip would really be impossible, because we all know..it's too dangerous to try it.

Awesome, just as long as they dont start exploiting any of the land I own up there.

This brew haa comes up every now and then.
Fact 1: Money is on Earth. Stuff mines in space must be returned to Earth to exchange for money.

Fact 2: 9 Billion of gold from space would crash the market on Earth. No profit.

Fact 3: There is no market for H3.

There have been numerous endeavours exploring how to create a moonbase. The best I have seen would be placing mobile 3D printing machines on the surface that utilize the materials already there to build everything or at least most of it. There is oxygen in the soil which can be mined and I believe I read there was water as well.

So IMO this is possible though I do think it will cost a lot more than the proposal says.

I have always thought a lunar base would make far more sense to build before kicking off further manned exploration in our solar system. For one launching vehicles from there would be far easier and with mining it would be able to refuel them.

Whoever does builds one first will be filthy rich from the resources.

originally posted by: CX
a reply to: sicksonezer0

I envisage it will be very much like this eventually.....quite a sad existence.

CX.

This movie looks good! When does it come out?

Try focusing on just one problem, heat dissipation. We are told the International Space Station uses a standard cooling system that incorporates different working fluids. The hot side of the condenser is cooled by a second system where the heat range of the working fluid is at a high enough temperature to heat a standard water boiler. Presumably the steam from the boiler is used to power a turbine that generates electricity. This would appear to violate the laws of thermodynamics, but maybe Phage can explain how this works in a vacuum environment.

On the other hand if I'm off topic and this thread is a RFC about the Unification Church then we should be looking back at the historical shortfalls of breakaway groups.

originally posted by: Grimpachi
There have been numerous endeavours exploring how to create a moonbase. The best I have seen would be placing mobile 3D printing machines on the surface that utilize the materials already there to build everything or at least most of it. There is oxygen in the soil which can be mined and I believe I read there was water as well.

So IMO this is possible though I do think it will cost a lot more than the proposal says.

I have always thought a lunar base would make far more sense to build before kicking off further manned exploration in our solar system. For one launching vehicles from there would be far easier and with mining it would be able to refuel them.

Whoever does builds one first will be filthy rich from the resources.

That makes perfect sense. Use 3-D print technology to build habitat/ infrastructure on the Moon. Food can also be printed. Water on the Moon can be extracted from the soil for drinking and for rocket fuel. The only remaining obstacle as far as I know would be the Regolith problem. I hear that it's a real nuisance.

a reply to: lostbook

Been out for quite a while.

Check Netflix.