Could living on/ mining the moon cause unintended consequences for Earth? e.g. changes in tide or anything else?

Question

Could living on/ mining the moon cause unintended consequences for Earth? e.g. changes in tide or anything else?

In: 248

Answer 1

No. No amount of mining on a human scale would have significant consequences for the moon’s orbit or tides or anything like that.

You could take the total amount of everything that humans have ever mined in the entire history of humanity, multiply it by a million, and transport it from the moon to earth, and it still would not have a significant effect on the moon’s orbit or the tides. The moon is just too big. Any amount of mining significant enough to effect the moon’s orbit or the tides in a noticeable way would already effect the earth even more dramatically by covering it in a noticeably thick layer of moon stuff. That’s how much you’d need to import, it would be so much that it would cover the earth in a layer of moon.