Do you think a private company would make any money from salvaging all the stuff left behind on the moon?

Question

I figure they could go up and claim the stuff up there because it's been up there for almost half a decade and bring it back and sell it off at a auction and make enough money to cover part of the cost of going up there.

Answer 1

With the cost of spaceflight going down very soon, I can see good reasons to consider that. However, when it comes to the Apollo artifacts, I don't believe that Nasa, and the American government, has necassarily given up its claim to those objects (the lander modules and the like). Indeed, there is a court case going on about a Spanish ship that sank in the ocean, and Spain not giving up the rights to the gold on the ship, simply because the ship sank hundreds of years ago.

So, although the costs for going into space (and by extention the moon) are going down, you would still probably face a lawsuit from the federal government, when you arrived back home.

Answer 2

it is an quite solid question. there became a action picture stated as salvage one million that dealt with an entrepreneur who had to do precisely that. he equipped a private rocket, released it to the moon, the place his pilots rounded up each and all the carry-able products, and positioned them interior the deliver. slightly of difficulty coming lower back, yet each and every thing ended properly. whilst NASA left those products on the moon it became for various applications. device programs became left to grant telemetry with records: it is reasoned that those products weren't abandoned and weren't of course interior the area for salvage. some products, like the moon buggy, suits and EVA kit, have been meant to be trash: it is criminal to salvage those as guy sees in good shape. in certainty, guy has already salvaged an merchandise from the moon. the Apollo 12 undertaking had the astronauts bypass to the surveyor lander close to via and get well the robot digicam from it. In consequence: salvage. of direction, it became the comparable company that despatched it, however the concepts are the comparable. Did the two astronaut obtain a decrease of the recovered products value? i don't comprehend, in spite of the fact that it can be a chortle to confirm

Answer 3

Yes. The collector value alone would make it worthwhile. I can see it now, the Chinese send a mission and bring back the flag from the Apollo 11 landing site and sell it on E-bay for about a billion dollars to some oil rich Arab as a living room decoration!

By they way, I hear Google is offering a $30 million prize to the first private company to land an operating rover on the Moon that can send back live pictures.

Answer 4

Not cost effective. They would never get enough at auction to cover the cost of going up there to get the stuff.

Answer 5

Nope. The cost of going to the moon would be much greater than the value of anything left on the moon.

Answer 6

Covering part of the cost is a bad way to run a business.

Answer 7

It's been up there much longer than "half a decade"

Answer 8

It would cost too much to get there.... That is why NASA left them there.

Answer 9

Hey that would make a great TV show.

Answer 10

Nobody with the resources to do that agrees with you, else it would have been done already.