Posted on 11/26/2004 9:20:04 AM PST by Willie Green
For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.
Udaipur, November 26 -- A potential gas source found on the Moon's surface could hold the key to meeting future energy demands as the Earth's fossil fuels dry up in the coming decades, scientists said on Friday.
Mineral samples from the Moon contained abundant quantities of helium 3, a variant of the gas used in lasers and refrigerators as well as to blow up balloons.
"When compared to the Earth the Moon has a tremendous amount of helium 3," said Lawrence Taylor, a director of the US Planetary Geosciences Institute, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences.
"When helium 3 combines with deuterium (an isotope of hydrogen) the fusion reaction proceeds at a very high temperature and it can produce awesome amounts of energy," Taylor said.
"Just 25 tonnes of helium, which can be transported on a space shuttle, is enough to provide electricity for the US for one full year," said Taylor, who is in the north Indian city of Udaipur for a global conference on Moon exploration.
Helium 3 is deposited on the lunar surface by solar winds and would have to be extracted from Moon soil and rocks.
The trick is to get 25 tonnes. hey, I thought helium was a very light particle, so how come the Moon, which has a weaker gravity than the Earth, has helium resources galore ? Does someone know ?
maybe because of the higher radiation.
Mike
It will need to be a severely redesigned shuttle. I would think that the current system would be incapable of re-entry with that size payload.
"Helium 3 is deposited on the lunar surface by solar winds and would have to be extracted from Moon soil and rocks."
Undoubtedly a nontrivial task - but that is beside the point, I guess.
insert photo of Hillary here!
You put the scale on the ceiling, of course.
Helium 3 is a promising fuel source for our future but it's a long way off. Ive read that a container the size of a single payload bay of a space shuttle could power the entire planet for a long time.
On the other hand. Once we become technologically advanced enough to mine Helium 3, we may be using something even more efficient.
Huzzah! We were there first. "Finders keepers" and all...
51 State: THE MOON
You have a Boston terror - I mean terrier? Idn't they great? The Dread Boston Salty knows just how cool he is.
It's regolith. Did any post explain how much regolith would have to be processed to get an ounce of He3?
Sure, but will it be a red state or a blue state? :-)
We ought to send the dems up there to check it out!
But if we take all the helium 3 out of the moon, what will hold it up in the sky?
> "Just 25 tonnes of helium, which can be transported on a
> space shuttle, is enough to provide electricity for the US
> for one full year," said Taylor, who is in the north Indian
> city of Udaipur for a global conference on Moon exploration.
Thus destroying the credibility of the entire article,
entirely apart from the fact that practical fusion has
been 10 years away for the last half century.
The shuttle cannot go to the moon, much less go & return.
It can't even get out of low earth orbit.
By the time there existed a heavylift out&return system,
it would be cheaper to use it to loft orbiting solar
collectors, and beam the energy down ...
... which gets to the major political issue. Adding to
the insolation (or importing nuclear sources) will add
to the heat burden of the planet. There will be no will
to support either until it is clear that global warming
is not happening, or is, but is not human-caused.
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