David Criswell - Views On Exploiting Lunar Resources

Views On Exploiting Lunar Resources

For over thirty years, Criswell has been an advocate for obtaining solar power from the moon. He proposes the large-scale construction of solar collectors on the lunar surface, using local lunar materials. The solar energy would be converted to microwave energy and transmitted to Earth.

Criswell envisions that this energy source would spur an unprecedented amount of global economic growth (Gross World Product increasing by a factor of 10), while having a positive environmental impact (fossil fuel-burning power plants would be decommissioned). He points out that lunar-solar energy would not generate nuclear waste, and is not a finite resource (in the sense that fossil fuels are a finite resource).

He estimates that a 1 GigaWatt demo of the lunar-solar power generation system could be built over a 10-year period for approximately $50 billion. If this estimate is accurate, it would indeed be a relatively small investment (To put the figure in perspective, Bill Gates' personal wealth is estimated to be $69 billion and the 2008 total estimate for the war at Iraq is $500 billion).

In short, Criswell believes that lunar-solar energy is the only viable option for generating the massive amounts of electrical power that would be needed to raise the standard of living in third-world nations to that of first-world nations.

He once said, from the University of Houston, that "We are already well beyond what the biosphere can provide. We have to go outside to get something else."