An energy source that's out of this world

Asia Times Online ^ | Nov 15, 2003 | Satyabrata Rai Chowdhuri

[Willie Green]

ping

Thought you might be interested in this.
Of course, you already know that Spencer Abraham is gonna dictate that any new moon shuttles built by NASA must be powered only by zero-emission solar panels and hydrogen fuel cells.

[Constantine XIII]

bump!

[RightWhale]

The Chinese are also well aware of He3 and that is in their plan for moon exploration.

[Libertarianize the GOP]

ping

[aruanan]

With the oil age starting to appear alarmingly finite, and with governments all over the planet searching for new energy sources, space scientists are looking at yet another fuel source, this one distributed on the moon over billions of years as birds distributed guano on the island of Nauru.

It started to appear alarmingly finite at the very beginning of its modern use as a fuel.

[AZLiberty]

What are the chances that environmentalists will allow strip-mining on the moon? Or is there a way to extract He3 from lunar soil without disturbing the soil?

[null and void]

Or is there a way to extract He3 from lunar soil without disturbing the soil?

Bake it out with sunlight???

[_Jim]

It started to appear alarmingly finite at the very beginning of its modern use as a fuel.

Hear hear!

It's almost as if it's part of policy to keep the actual amount of 'reserves' as low as necessary - until it's necessary to show that card for whatever purpose ...

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

One tonne, they say, could supply the energy needs of a city of 10 million people when combined in a fusion reactor with a form of hydrogen extracted from water.

Ooops. Exactly which fusion reactor is that now?

[GeorgiaYankee]

One tonne, they say, could supply the energy needs of a city of 10 million people when combined in a fusion reactor with a form of hydrogen extracted from water.

Ooops. Exactly which fusion reactor is that now?
__________________________________________________

... and how much energy does it take to extract the hydrogen from water?

[sourcery]

[null and void]

DUH! Cold Fusion, dude!

[Willie Green]

Ooops. Exactly which fusion reactor is that now?

I think it must be one that's being developed by either China or India.
Spence has aligned our energy strategery with that of OPEC.
If we're lucky, maybe we'll be allowed to import a fusion reactor from China someday.
That is, IF they develop a generous foreign aide program to benefit undeveloped nations such as ourselves.

[edwin hubble]

Willie, the beginning of the 5th paragraph:

"Nuclear FUSION is the other source of energy..."
This is a typo...

He meant to refer to 'fission' here, not fusion, because he is referring to the long half-life of the nuclear waste and the many neutrons released by the reaction. and because he goes on to say:

"On the other hand, a fusion reaction carried through Helium3 releases only one percent of its energy in the form of neutrons..."

[NonValueAdded]

What are the chances that environmentalists will allow strip-mining on the moon? Or is there a way to extract He3 from lunar soil without disturbing the soil?

I've heard a few other space evangelists give a similar account. Picture a crawler that scoops up the top one foot of moon soil, dumps it in a chamber where it is heated to release the He³ which is captured and the soil is redeposited behind the crawler. Sort of like a space combine.

One shuttle's worth of He³ would power the earth's energy needs for a year - how many years for Moon Base Alpha? What language will be spoken there?

[Mike Darancette]

Nuclear fusion is the other source of energy, but faces lots of political problems because of the radioactive waste it produces and because it produces a great number of neurons, which damage reactors, cutting their life.

What????

[Poohbah]

Deuterium-tritum fusion (the easiest kind) produces much of its energy as neutrons; to harness these, you have to catch the neutrons and have them heat up a working fluid to drive a steam turbine.

Aneutronic fusion requires very high temperatures. If you can sustain 2.5 billion degrees or so, you can fuse hydrogen and boron, generating only charged particles (the energy is easily extracted via magnets).

[RightWhale]

it produces a great number of neurons

Sure, but can it think philosophically?

[Poohbah]

Sure, but can it think philosophically?

Half a bee must ipso fact half not-be, vis-a-vis its entity...