[taxcontrol]

Offer $1 Billion for the first ton of He3 returned from the moon. NASA sets the prize money aside and keeps doing what it has been doing. Possibly sells shuttle payload space along the way.

BTW, He3 is excellent fusion material and it emits very little radiation.

[DannyTN]

Interesting proposal.

How much He3 is there on the moon?

Is there an advantage to obtaining He3 from the moon over the earth?

Shouldn't we wait until fusion is more advanced?

[unibrowshift9b20]

taxcontrol says: "Offer $1 Billion for the first ton of He3 returned from the moon."

It would take a lot more than a billion dollars for them to afford it and a whole lot more for the risk to be viable. Maybe several hundred billion for a private company to make it and a trillion for it to be worth the risk. I don't think there's any company that can afford anywhere near those kinds of numbers for one single program. You'd need lots of companies, and even then that wouldn't be enough to do it. What you need is a company that is not based on profit, but simply on doing the things that need to be done. Thats not a company, and its not a charity. Actually, the answer is that its the government. The purpose of the government is to do the things that private businesses and people need but cannot afford to do on their own. Examples of proper government stuff include: legal and justice systems, infrastructure (you couldn't have several companies competing to get you to pay to drive on their roads), and the military. Another example is NASA. The US needs access to space militarily and civilly, but no company can do that. Its too risky. Not even Rutan. If there was profit on the moon, then companies would be there. If there was profit in having a military then companies would have them.

[adam_az]

"BTW, He3 is excellent fusion material and it emits very little radiation."

Cool, so you designed a fusion reactor?