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MrSpotgold t1_j7ufsuv wrote

It's going to be tricky to send all these child laborers to the Moon - but for sure, it's not beyond Musk.

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Tnuvu t1_j7umfve wrote

Meddling with something as delicate as the balance Moon-Eart given so many things are as they are in equilibrum thanks to the moon, this seems like a terrible idea

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Sol_Hando t1_j7uy601 wrote

I doubt humans could seriously negatively effect the interactions the moon has with the earth, even if we tried for decades. It’s mostly gravitational, which would take actually moving a large part of the moon to a different place to effect. We might create issues if we block out much if the light from the moon though.

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souless424 t1_j7z0l6u wrote

Ok but how is ming the moon gonna fix the earth... Seems like we're just gonna have a bunch of space ships going up and down making it worse

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Sol_Hando t1_j7zu6gb wrote

There are lots of great idea regarding space that can fix our issues here on earth. Gigantic solar reflectors that decrease the amount of sunlight hitting the earth could solve climate change, solar panels produced in space that beam energy down to earth could solve the worlds energy needs.

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Vucea OP t1_j7ud91f wrote

Astrophysicists propose geoengineering solution to climate warming

Proponents of a "moonshot" idea to deal with global heating have been handed a new, very literal, interpretation by researchers who have proposed firing plumes of moon dust from a gun into space in order to deflect the sun’s rays away from Earth.

The seemingly outlandish concept, outlined in a new research paper, would involve creating a "solar shield" in space by mining the moon of millions of tons of its dust and then "ballistically eject[ing]" it to a point in space about 1m miles from Earth, where the floating grains would partially block incoming sunlight.

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Smytus t1_j7uibyq wrote

Is this a new traffic hazard for spacecraft? Can't be good to have all that dust/grit in your path.

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Tech_Mastermind_Dave t1_j7ut9ba wrote

Finally, my laptop will never be dirty again I am impervious my sight unclouded gods have sacrificed paradises for a mere fraction of the power I now hold from now on I am no longer the mortal but th what's this, it can't be! No NO NOOOOOO

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TreeHuggingHippyMan t1_j7uya2j wrote

Or we could just keep launching satellites and rockets into space. The space junk will have the same effect and we would create a new industry that could employ thousands of space junk collectors

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FuturologyBot t1_j7uhy29 wrote

The following submission statement was provided by /u/Vucea:

Astrophysicists propose geoengineering solution to climate warming

Proponents of a "moonshot" idea to deal with global heating have been handed a new, very literal, interpretation by researchers who have proposed firing plumes of moon dust from a gun into space in order to deflect the sun’s rays away from Earth.

The seemingly outlandish concept, outlined in a new research paper, would involve creating a "solar shield" in space by mining the moon of millions of tons of its dust and then "ballistically eject[ing]" it to a point in space about 1m miles from Earth, where the floating grains would partially block incoming sunlight.

Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/Futurology/comments/10xvd1d/a_solution_to_the_climate_crisis_mining_the_moon/j7ud91f/

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phoenix1984 t1_j7uscle wrote

They’re not talking about firing it at a Lagrange point or anything. It’d have to be a constant supply. Kinda like that episode in Futurama where the “solution” was to keep dropping giant ice cubes in the ocean. This isn’t a real fix.

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Ian1732 t1_j7w9qlx wrote

Just one more celestial body bro
C'mon bro please

We've already used this one up and there's so many minerals up there

Please bro c'mon just one more

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souless424 t1_j7z0ngn wrote

Let's skip the moon and fuck up mercury no one gives a shit about that bitch planet. Humans will never be happy with what they I kinda hope we never make it off earth I don't really see us doing any good just gonna fuck up more planets

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GiraffeAdditional299 t1_j7usf6s wrote

Bad idea. The moon is in delicate balance with the Earth. The moon should be off limits for heavy alteration

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Yogurt789 t1_j7v1bz7 wrote

I think you're seriously underestimating how much mass the Moon has, anything we could do to it would have little to no effect on its gravitational interaction with the Earth.

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GiraffeAdditional299 t1_j7vgtjc wrote

I think you’re underestimating how many companies are salivating at the prospect of raping the moon. If we open the door, it’s only a matter of time before the tides, and other magnetic field properties are affected. You have never seen the amount of quarried rock on Earth huh? Or everything else we have fucked up? The whole “humans can’t impact nature” point of view is antiquated and devoid of intelligence.

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123yes1 t1_j7vhedb wrote

Bruh do you have any idea how big the moon is?

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GiraffeAdditional299 t1_j7vkbww wrote

Sorry, I’m having a shit day. I’m just sick of humanity destroying nature just for fucking money. An empty, worthless notion of the universe, where true value is ignored, like life, and balance of the universe. Let’s go after asteroids, there’s so many, and they are far enough away that no matter how many we mine, their absence won’t affect anything. Sorry again.

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94746382926 t1_j7vup82 wrote

I mean the moon is an extremely hostile lifeless rock. Technically it's nature but it's not like you're harming an ecosystem by mining there. On the contrary you could argue that you are protecting the Earth's by outsourcing mineral extraction there. Also as others have mentioned it would take an absurd amount of mining to appreciably change its mass. This is something we are nowhere near capable of.

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123yes1 t1_j7vlpc0 wrote

It's cool bro.

I was pointing out that there is no amount of mining or quarrying that will have an impact on the moon's gravitational pull (which is what affects tides and such)

While sending moon dust into space to cool earth temperatures shouldn't be plan A for dealing with climate change (that would be eliminating fossil fuels, etc.) It's not the absolute worst plan B. And in order for us to have a viable plan B, we'll need to investigate and research it.

It seems that the more progressive minded redditors have a bit of a kneejerk reaction to investigating plans other than reducing fossil fuel consumption. I'm just saying, two options are better than one. Climate change is a tricky issue, and we probably won't be able to eliminate fossil fuels fast enough, without a precipitous drop in quality of life.

Anyway, I hope your shit day improves, or at least I hope tomorrow is better

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GiraffeAdditional299 t1_j7vzq7e wrote

I think the political ramifications will cause the largest problem. The moon will become a military contested location. Plus, the fines put into orbit from the mining will be deadly.

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123yes1 t1_j7w03av wrote

Sure, those could be likely problems, but every idea starts out half baked. Some out of the box thinking is probably needed to prevent climate catastrophe. Maybe this is it, maybe something else. The only way to figure that out is by investigating ideas

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GiraffeAdditional299 t1_j7w0fcj wrote

Half baked ideas are why the world is the way it is right now. Should we take such countenance into the frontier of space?

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Yogurt789 t1_j7weund wrote

If we get to the point where our technology is advanced enough to remove a significant portion of the Moon's mass we'd be somewhere between the expanse and star trek levels of tech, it'd be like a colony of ants mining away the north face of Everest. Like we could build whatever crazy dyson swarm type thing we wanted to in space at that point and just turn the whole ass Earth into a nature reserve.

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GiraffeAdditional299 t1_j7wnipr wrote

Earth Nature reserve would be great

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Yogurt789 t1_j7wpqnq wrote

If we can move a lot of heavy industry off planet we can finally treat this planet as the jewel that it is, and leave it alone. At least that's my dream.

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momolamomo t1_j7y5zdm wrote

Yeah… if the moons weight starts to go down, you can forget predictable tides. Silly idea

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Gransterman t1_j7vc4no wrote

Can we not figure out that humans fucking with the Earths exposure to the sun is going to go terribly wrong and cause a much greater catastrophe it prevents? 🤦

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