Helium 3

[qzzq]

From SpaceDaily.com: <ul type="square">Moon Could Meet Earth's Future Energy Demands: Scientists<br /><br />A potential energy 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 last Friday.<br />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.<br /><br />"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.<br /><br />"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 told AFP.<br /><br />"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.<br /><br />Helium 3 is deposited on the lunar surface by solar winds and would have to be extracted from moon soil and rocks.<br /><br />To extract helium 3 gas the rocks have to be heated above 1,400 degs Fdegs C). Some 200 million tonnes of lunar soil would produce one tonne of helium, Taylor said, noting that only 10 kilos of helium are available on earth.<br /><br />Indian President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam told the International Conference on Exploration and Utilisation of the Moon on Wednesday that the barren planet held about one million tonnes of helium 3.<br /><br />"The moon contains 10 times more energy in the form of Helium 3 than all the fossil fuels on the earth," Kalam said.<br /><br />However, planetary scientist Taylor said the reactor technology for converting helium 3 to energy was still in its infancy an</ul> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p>***</p> </div>

 

[grooble]

However, it could be done well within 10 years if the sources of finance are generated to get this (reactor) going," he said<br /><br />^ Always down to money. We have so much potential as a species but we are held back by money.

 

[qzzq]

Cheers Steve, I'll check it out. <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /> (Sorry for the late reply. ) <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p>***</p> </div>

 

[vulture4]

Brussard, who is an expert in fusion, believes the boron+proton reaction (11B,p)->(3 alpha) , which yields three energetic alpha particles, has much more potential for controlled fusion. The reactant isotopes are common on earth, and it has all the advantages of helium-3 since all the reaction products are charged. See http://www.fusor.net/newbie/files/Ligon-QED-IE.pdf I have not seen any rationale for there being an advantage to helium-3 over other forms of controlled fusion. I would conclude that this is a case of people wanting to find a way to justify spaceflight at any cost. All practical applications of spaceflight, like every other business, are highly sensitive to cost.

 

[tanstaafl76]

Based on my understanding the best that can be said is that Helium 3 *might* be a valuable power source for fusion reactors *some day*. But we don't know for certain, nor do we know whether it would even be remotely economical to collect it on the moon. Helium-3 is being oversold as a basis for a lunar presence, but saying we should go back to the moon because it's chock full of fusion fuel is akin to our former President saying we have to invade Iraq because it's chock full of WMDs. Everything is hunky dory until you get there and it doesn't pan out, then the whole program suffers because it lacks credibility.

 

[nimbus]

a) Bussard
b) "Believed", unfortunately.
c) A discussion on some of the fuels for Polywell fusion in space applications.

 

[justinc210]

I'm with vulture4 on this one. But in a wider view of things I think that this indicates the direction that space commercialization will head in. Tourism will be small potatoes next to the wealth that will be gained from mining throughout the solar system. As a species our energy demands will continue to rise and the only option will be to seek our resources elsewhere. As support for this idea, we can draw an analog back to the history of colonization as Europe began to outgrow its resources.

 

[TimeDog]

Re:

However, it could be done well within 10 years if the sources of finance are generated to get this (reactor) going," he said

^ Always down to money. We have so much potential as a species but we are held back by money.

amen to that. money and the idea of nations is still holding us back in so many ways

 

[tanstaafl76]

Re: Re:

amen to that. money and the idea of nations is still holding us back in so many ways

Money is merely a transferrable form of the product of peoples' mind and labor. Yes we could accomplish great things if more people dedicated their mind and labor to space exploration, but there isn't a living to be made as of yet. So we're not held back by money, we're held back by profitable reasons to be in space. Once opportunities and jobs in space become plentiful, money won't be a problem. But as long as we are chained to a government budget that relies upon confiscating peoples' wealth against their will for the sake of science, it's always going to be a major constraint, as well as turning the public against the endeavor.

As for the "idea of nations" holding us back, I couldn't disagree more. The idea of nations is what has allowed us to get where we are. The U.S. is pretty new compared to much of the western democratic world, yet we have been leaders in space exploration. Why is that? Constitutional protections and economic freedom allowed our economy to become very successful and productive, which in turn meant there was enough money left over to have a space program. Without the prosperity directly stemming from having a new western democracy with the strongest Constitutional protections the world has ever seen, none of it would have ever happened. So no, the "idea of nations" has not held us back, it has made space exploration as we know it possible.