Economic Viability of Lunar Resource Extraction

The business case for lunar mining depends entirely on where the extracted resources will be used. Bringing materials back to Earth is rarely economical; selling them in space is the objective.

In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) is the foundation of a sustainable space economy. The high cost of launching mass from Earth's deep gravity well means that producing propellant, breathable air, and building materials locally provides massive leverage.

The Target: Polar Water Ice

The most immediate and valuable resource on the Moon is not gold or platinum, but water. Located in Permanently Shadowed Regions (PSRs) at the lunar poles, water ice can be electrolyzed into hydrogen and oxygen—the most efficient chemical rocket propellants.

The Helium-3 Fallacy

Helium-3 is frequently cited as the economic driver for lunar settlement. While abundant on the Moon compared to Earth, commercial fusion reactors capable of utilizing He-3 do not currently exist, and extracting it requires processing millions of tons of regolith per kilogram of product.