The moon could be a promising source of raw materials for the production of touchscreen phones. This opinion was expressed by Vladislav Shevchenko, Head of the Department of Lunar and Planetary Studies of the VI State Institute of Astronomy. Sternberg Moscow State University. Lomonosov in conversation with socialbites.ca.
Leading space powers plan to build bases on the Moon in the next ten years. Among the reasons for its construction are mining as well as scientific research. This goal raises doubts among many experts, as it is very expensive to transport material from the Moon and it would be less costly to extract the same fossil on Earth. However, once the world’s number of mineral reserves are completely depleted, there may be no alternative to space mining.
“Terrestrial reserves of many rare earth metals belonging to the lanthanide group are already depleted, consulting firms say proven reserves will be depleted in a few decades. Many high-tech devices require lanthanides: for example, phones with extremely small supplies have indium in their touchscreens. Engineers replace indium. they are looking for something to buy, but on the Moon it has a lot of reserves, and we can show areas where the concentration of rare earth metals is high, ”Shevchenko said.
It is indium that gives the touch screen its properties. Currently, smartphone manufacturers are looking for analogues of this metal, but if a quality substitute cannot be found, importing from the Moon may be a good alternative. However, before this makes economic sense, it is necessary to reduce the cost of a flight to the moon by tens of times.
You can read more about the meaning and expediency of building a base on the Moon here: material “socialbites.ca”.