NEWS FROM THE FUTURE: Mining the lucrative moon

November 21 2032

When US president Donald Trump signed the executive order in April 2020, encouraging US companies to mine the moon, it’s unlikely he had any sense of the magnitude of the machine he set in motion. Fast forward 12 years and moon mining is not only feasible, it’s a reality.

Shortly after Trump’s executive order, Nasa awarded contracts for four companies to extract small amounts of regolith — or moon dust — from the lunar surface, effectively kick-starting the era of commercial moon mining.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX was the key to making lunar mining commercially viable. SpaceX’s reusable rockets enabled affordable exploration of lunar mining opportunities for hundreds of companies across the globe. The most successful of these are leveraging space-based solar power to keep the lights on and AI-enabled machinery, operated by “tech workers” using augmented and virtual reality technology to remotely control the machinery on — and below — the moon’s surface.

The US department of energy, working with an exciting entrant to the energy sector, Helios3, is exploring retired astronaut Harrison “Jack” Schmitt’s theory of mining helium-3 on the moon for use in nuclear fusion. Although the isotope is plentiful on the lunar surface, by comparison to Earth, they still need to process hundreds of millions of tonnes of regolith to produce a commercially viable volume of helium-3. But, because the process is carried out remotely and is powered by an abundant, and free, resource ­— the sun — once the initial set-up costs are offset, the operation should prove hugely profitable.

Although many of the geopolitical technicalities are still unresolved, backed by its Artemis Accords partners, the US seems undeterred. Echoing the sentiments she shared as vice-president in 2022, President Kamala Harris tweeted earlier this week: “The US is proudly leading the way forward on the moon. And we are committed to ensuring that all space activities are conducted in a responsible, peaceful and sustainable manner.”

Whether lunar mining will produce the results its biggest fans hope for, remains to be seen. But if global powers cannot find a way to work together, we might be seeing “moon shots” of a far more violent nature in the future!

First published on Mindbullets November 24 2022

The world’s first trillionaire: Elon Musk grabs the title as SpaceX soars

October 29 2031

Forty years ago, science fiction author Ben Bova surmised that the world’s first trillionaire would be born on the back of commercial space operations, and he wasn’t wrong. According to Forbes, Elon Musk’s personal fortune has quadrupled in a decade and now stands at just over $1-trillion, making him not only the world’s richest person, but also the first — and only — trillionaire.

And it’s only partly due to the success of Tesla, which catapulted Musk firmly to the top of the billionaires’ club with an estimated net worth of $250bn in October 2021. At the time, Morgan Stanley rated SpaceX the most valuable private company; that was when Starlink was barely operating a full network, and Starship prototypes hadn’t reached orbit yet.

But the vision for SpaceX was clear. The business of space was wide open for innovation and market dominance, and SpaceX had first mover advantage. Fully reusable Starships would not only service space stations and the Moon, but would be capable of transporting 100 tonnes of cargo around the world in under an hour. And eventually travel to Mars.

Since then, we have seen Starlink expand their constellation to thousands of satellites, providing high bandwidth internet to almost every corner of the globe. Starship and its gigantic boosters have rewritten the economics of space launches, and SpaceX has gone public. As the single founder, visionary, and “technoking” of SpaceX, Muski has held on to majority of the stock, and every tick upwards ratchets his fortune higher.

Musk is a maverick and a bit of a daredevil, who is willing to risk his own money on a dream, to change the world. In the startup days of Tesla and SpaceX he was almost broke. Now that he can afford to buy a whole country, or perhaps several small ones, what will he invest in next?

First published on Mindbullets October 28 2021

• Despite appearances to the contrary, Futureworld cannot and does not predict the future. The Mindbullets scenarios are fictitious and designed purely to explore possible futures, and challenge and stimulate strategic thinking.