Is mining the moon in our future?

Of all the places you might look for geological resources worth the cost of mining them, the moon probably doesn’t come to mind first. According to a new article in Forbes, temperatures there range from 250 degrees Fahrenheit at the equator during the day to negative 410 at night. Most of the surface is covered with a fine dust with jagged edges unweathered by wind or water; the dust eroded spacesuit boots and the seals of sample containers on the Apollo missions.

And there’s the matter of transporting mining equipment to a surface 238,900 miles away, not to mention returning what you extract. But none of this is deterring Interlune, a company that intends to mine Helium-3 from the surface of our nearest celestial neighbor.

The Forbes article details the challenges of obtaining this isotope. Helium-3 mined on Earth sells for $2,500 a liter, or roughly $19 million a kilogram. The company’s CEO thinks his machines could produce at least ten kilograms of the isotope a year on the moon, a production worth close to $200 million.

Other startups are also developing ways to exploit water and minerals on the moon or build structures there. But Interlune may be among the first to build a near-term business, in part because it has ways to monetize its technology in the meantime.

On a related theme, last night, my wife and I watched the 2024 movie, Fly Me to the Moon. It tells the story of Apollo 11, the first manned expedition to the moon, in the context of a romantic comedy. While the characters are fictional, of course, the larger story is not. And the peril of transporting humans to the moon and back is just as visceral in the movie as if it were a scientific documentary.

Taken together, these lunar stories make a point that is both humbling and deeply encouraging in our chaotic times.

Your iPhone and Apollo 11

On one hand, it is highly impressive to me that NASA was able to fly humans to the moon and back using 1960s technology that most of us would hesitate to rely on to drive across the country today. The iPhone in your pocket has over one hundred thousand times the processing power of the computer that landed men on the moon five decades ago.

I would not know how to begin constructing a rocket to reach the roof of my house, much less the moon. It’s staggering to consider the technological advances humans have made just in my lifetime.

On the other hand, our solar system contains over 891 confirmed moons. Because ours is only one of billions of such planetary systems in the Milky Way galaxy, and there are billions of galaxies in the universe, the total number of moons in the universe is likely in the billions or even trillions. Mining even one substance from one moon is an enormously challenging endeavor. Imagine attempting similar endeavors further from our planet.

The capacities of humans and the enormity of the created universe are, in some ways, at odds with each other. But taken together, they illustrate a fact worth remembering every day we inhabit this tiny planet.

“Get your own dirt”

God created us in his image and likeness (Genesis 1:27), a fact stated of no other species in the world. What’s more, he created us to “work” and “keep” his creation (Genesis 2:15); the Hebrew verbs mean to protect and develop what he has made. No other species is designed to do both as well as we can.

Just as a painting tells us much about the painter and music about the musician, so human capacities tell us much about the capacities and character of our Maker. We are relational as he is relational. We exist to love our Lord and our neighbor in alignment with our Father who “is” love (Matthew 22:37–39; 1 John 4:8). We create as an expression of our nature, just as he does. We have intellectual capacities that illustrate his own.

But the seeming infinitude of the universe reminds us that our finitude compared to God’s omnipotence is on a level of near infinitude as well. As the Law of Conservation of Mass tells us, despite all our best efforts, we can neither create nor destroy anything God has made—we simply change its composition and uses.

I’m reminded of the scientist who told the Lord that he could make a better world than God created. The Lord agreed to the challenge. The scientist scooped some dirt to start, and God said, “Get your own dirt.”

Nor can we create or preserve even one day of life on this tiny planet. David prayed, “O Lᴏʀᴅ, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am!” (Psalm 39:4). Then God apparently answered his prayer, because David testified next:

Behold, you have made my days a few handbreadths, and my lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath! Surely a man goes about as a shadow! Surely for nothing they are in turmoil; man heaps up wealth and does not know who will gather! (vv. 5–6).

Ten thousand millennia after the moon is gone

Our problem is that our technological advancements have blunted our ability to agree with David today. He lived in a world where science as we know it did not exist, and in no sense deluded humans into ignoring their dependence on their Creator.

But we are no less mortal than he was. We are just as subject to disease and disaster as those who lived in Judea three millennia ago. We have better shelter and medicine, but we also face threats they could not imagine, from AI and nuclear weapons that could annihilate us, to genetic engineering that could degrade and threaten our species.

So, while we try to mine the moon, let’s pause to reflect on the greatness and grandeur of the Creator who made what we seek to develop, along with every other molecule that exists. Let’s trust his omnipotence when we need strength, his omniscience when we need wisdom, and his omnibenevolence when we need grace.

And let’s remember that using this temporal world for the sake of eternity is the best way to serve both. Ten thousand millennia after the moon is gone and forgotten along with everything else in this created universe, eternity will only have begun.

This is the warning, and the promise, of God.