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Water forming in particles of interplanetary
dust. Photo credit: Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory. (Right)
The poles are the most interesting spot for future
prospectors, because of the huge amounts of
water ice there. A lot of the technology being
developed right now by space entrepreneurs is
focused on the kind of support needed to build
infrastructure which will be needed for mining
water ice and for habitation on the moon. This
is going to happen, and soon - while the main
mission of Chang’e 3 is for doing scientific
The lander of mission Chang’e 3. Photo credit:
CASC/China Ministry of Defense (Below)
research, the landing marks the beginning of
what will probably become a continual human
and machine presence on the moon. The experience of Chang’e 3’s soft landing and of the proven
ability for the robots to mostly survive the lunar
night are two of the biggest feats sought by commercial companies. It’s possible that the color
camera on the lander did not survive the lunar
night, but lessons from failures are also valuable
to engineers. The data from the mission will be
used by private enterprises to help them decide
the best places and methods for mining, and
many have already booked support services with
ICY SCIENCE | QTR 1 2014