WIRED Staff
Science

Slideshow: The Final Capitalist Frontier

Future space explorers might bring back more than just pictures from their excursions -- they could mine the planets for profit. By Mark Baard.
Lunar explorers living in permanent settlements will harvest the resources deposited in the moon's soil by volcanic...
Lunar explorers living in permanent settlements will harvest the resources deposited in the moon's soil by volcanic activity and solar winds. In this image, oxygen-rich regolith is loaded into the hopper of a plant that heats the material to yield water. The system then "cracks" the water through electrolysis to yield hydrogen, which is recycled, and oxygen, which is stored in tanks.Courtesy of Pat Rawlings/NASA

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Taurus Littrow moon landing site, a lunar mining facility harvests oxygen from the resource-rich volcanic soil of the eastern Mare Serenitatis. Iron, aluminum, magnesium and titanium in the processed tailings could be used as raw material for a lunar metals-production plant.

Courtesy of Pat Rawlings/NASA
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A massive reservoir of ice imbedded in permanently shadowed soil (right) at the moon's south pole can provide the hydrogen and oxygen to fuel a fleet of spacecraft and provide atmosphere and water for future lunar inhabitants.

Courtesy of Pat Rawlings/NASA