Hubble Zooms In On Moon Minerals 191
DIY News writes "Lunar scientists have already returned to the moon, using the Hubble Space Telescope and old Apollo Program rock samples to begin prospecting for useful ores. Locating ores rich in oxygen and metals is seen as the first step in making the next decade's human return to the moon more self sufficient and cost effective. Some wavelengths of UV are filtered out by Earth's atmosphere, which is why Hubble can do the job better than a ground-based telescope."
Keep Hubble! (Score:1, Insightful)
And, First Post?
Re:Zoom (Score:2, Insightful)
The Hubble orbits 350 miles above the earth and the average distance to the moon is 238,857 miles.
I'd hardly consider 238,500 (apprx) miles very close =-)
Re:A little OT but... (Score:3, Insightful)
If you can get the math to work and sweet talk some venture capitalists then by all means do so. Believe me, people are trying. The numbers just don't work out well. Oil, or any other energy source, is cheap by comparison. The launch costs and inefficiencies in the energy transfer back to earth just don't correlate into profit.
Winds up being the same story with the rail gun. Good idea, in principle, but the devil is in the details.
-everphilski-
Re:Zoom (Score:5, Insightful)
The Hubble orbits 350 miles above the earth and the average distance to the moon is 238,857 miles.
I'd hardly consider 238,500 (apprx) miles very close =-)
Considering the Hubble routinely examines objects hundred of millions to billions of light years away from Earth (See the See the Hubble Deep Field survey [stsci.edu]), I'd consider ~239K miles to be right the fuck on top of.
Re:The worlds most boring holiday snaps... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Hollywood basement ? Insufficient resolution (Score:2, Insightful)