Skip to comments. Astronomy Picture of the Day -- At the West Wall of Aristarchus CraterPosted on 02/17/2012 2:53:26 AM PST by SunkenCivExplanation: Aristarchus Plateau is anchored in the vast lava flows of the Moon's Oceanus Procellarum. At the plateau's southeastern edge lies the spectacular Aristarchus Crater, an impact crater 40 kilometers wide and 3 kilometers deep. Scan along this remarkable panorama and you will find yourself gazing directly at the crater's west wall for some 25 kilometers. Features along the terraced wall include dark impact melt and debris deposits, bright excavated material, and boulders over 100 meters wide. At a full resolution of 1.6 meters per pixel, the sharp mosaic was created from images recorded by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter's narrow angle camera in November of 2011. The orbiter's vantage point was 70 kilometers east of the crater's center and only 26 kilometers above the lunar surface. (Excerpt) Read more at 188.8.131.52 ... Looks like a great place to begin mining operations.... Or terraced apartments Now we know how the man-in-the-moon died! Ya know, I was thinking the same thing. Can you imagine what will happen when commercial exploration of space begins and the first megalithic find of gold or even iron is found on the moon? Space exploration will explode and a race for new exploration opportunities will begin. I pray it happens in my lifetime. What would that do to the price of gold? It’s absolutely ludicrous to think that precious metals, minerals, ores, and even petroleum can’t be found elsewhere in the solar system. They were either extant on Earth or were deposited here by ancient asteroids/meteors, etc. (panspermia). If these ores, esp. gold, were found elsewhere in the solar system, I predict that the price of gold won’t budge for a while. It will take several years to get the proper equipment into space and staged for mining operations on the moon or elsewhere. Then those mined materials have to be either refined on site or brought back to Earth. Either way, it’s not a money-making operation right off the line. It’ll take probably decades to get a regular supply line coming in to affect gold in any real way. But just imagine the possibilities if iron, titanium, molybdenum, chromium, vanadium, or any other building material metals could be found in large quantities on the moon or Mars. We could see an extraterrestrial building boom and a space-based industrial revolution that would make every man, woman and child on Earth rich. Get us off this rock! Occupy the Moon! I was gonna say bird poop. *Snort* [giggles] [more giggles]I read Ringworld a long time ago. I would love to see a movie on it. Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.