Perils of having a moon consisting of valuable material

In the 1960s we were disappointed to find that the moon is a pile of dust and rubble with no easily accessible valuable materials. Well, we kind of knew it before that, but we weren't sure. Anyway, this is why no one has gone back in 45 years or so.

I am wondering if the following scenario would be plausible, in the hypothesis we had actually found that the moon is made of something valuable, say gold:

1. Accelerated exploration of the moon, with the purpose of accessing the valuable resource. (Problem: Would it have been feasible to profitably transport significant quantities valuable material such as gold from the moon to down to earth with 1960s/1970s technology? If not, would it have become feasible in the subsequent decades?)
2. Collapse of the price of the resource on earth with (or in anticipation of) the first shipments with the resulting economic mayhem.
3. Destabilization of the earth-moon system by shifting a significant amount of mass from the moon to the earth. (Problem: I suspect the mass transported would be negligible in any plausible scenario.)

posted almost 5 years ago

Solar Bear‭

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