Helium 3 - a solution?
"Cosmochemist and geochemist Ouyang Ziyuan from the Chinese Academy of Sciences who is now in charge of the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program has already stated on many occasions that one of the main goals of the program would be the mining of helium-3, from which operation "each year three space shuttle missions could bring enough fuel for all human beings across the world."[33]
In January 2006 the Russian space company RKK Energiya announced that it considers lunar helium-3 a potential economic resource to be mined by 2020,[34] if funding can be found.[35][36]
Mining gas giants for helium-3 has also been proposed.[37] The British Interplanetary Society's hypothetical Project Daedalus interstellar probe design was fueled by helium-3 mines on the planet Jupiter, for example. Jupiter's high gravity makes this a less energetically favorable operation than extracting helium-3 from the other gas giants of the solar system, however." Wiki cited below.
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In view of the oncoming world-wide energy shortage, comment on this might be useful. pl
To use 3He as a fuel, you need a working fusion reactor of some type which does not exist at this time. In principle, a really big fusion system like ITER will work since size helps the reactions, but it will be so expensive to build reactors like that it really isn't more cost effective than solar, wind, geothermal systems, etc. Especially if you have to go to the moon for fuel!
Other fusion reactor designs like the Brussard Polywell (that is mentioned in the Wiki article) are long-shots, but no one can prove that something like that won't work and they are much cheaper to build. However, they could use something like hydrogen and Borium or just deuterium which are available in good quantities.
Posted by: Kevin K | August 27, 2008 at 12:41 PM
Helium-3 conversions are aneutronic. There is no downside. TOKAMAK and Polywell are not the only potential answers.
Posted by: Brian | August 28, 2008 at 11:36 AM
This sounds like a job for the US Government. We could move from energy consumer to energy producer. And NASA could start directly generating revenue in addition to delivering scientific research.
People forget that we can thank the US government for the Internet, CDMA cell phone technology, satellite communications (telecom, imagery, and GPS), and computing. Everything that drives our modern technological world was mostly cooked up by DoD R&D many moons ago. (Pun intended)
Government has its place. We voters need to stop bashing it and have a realistic debate about what it does well and what it does poorly. It has been proven that government can drive technological innovation by financing huge R&D projects that have the freedom to fail. How many projects failed under DARPA before they invented the backbone of the Internet? I'd say each of those failures was worth the success.
Posted by: Cold War Zoomie | August 31, 2008 at 08:37 AM
CWZ
I think you are right. The USG should take this on.
pl
Posted by: Patrick Lang | August 31, 2008 at 09:16 AM
CWZ
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_driver
Maybe this would be the way to get the ore back to earth? pl
Posted by: Patrick Lang | September 01, 2008 at 10:49 AM
Wow - that Mass Driver is an incredible concept. Who are the lucky duckies who get to build it on the Moon? What an experience that would be.
Posted by: Cold War Zoomie | September 14, 2008 at 07:48 AM
CWZ
In his SF novel "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress," Heinlein used mass drivers to ship ore to earth. I think the catchment area was simply some patch of ocean. pl
Posted by: Patrick Lang | September 14, 2008 at 08:30 AM