Russia to open moonbase by 2015 and mining by 2020

[earth_bound_misfit]

Russia to open moonbase mine<br />From: Agence France-Presse<br />From correspondents in Moscow<br /><br />January 26, 2006<br />Form News.com.au<br /> <br /><br />RUSSIA is planning to mine a rare fuel on the moon by 2020 with a permanent base and a heavy-cargo transport link, a Russian space official says.<br />"We are planning to build a permanent base on the moon by 2015 and by 2020 we can begin the industrial-scale delivery ... of the rare isotope Helium-3," Nikolai Sevastyanov, head of the Energia space corporation, was quoted by ITAR-TASS news agency as saying at an academic conference.<br /><br />The International Space Station (ISS) would play a key role in the project and a regular transport relay to the moon would be established with the help of the planned Clipper spaceship and the Parom, a space capsule intended to tug heavy cargo containers around space, Mr Sevastyanov said.<br /><br />Helium-3 is a non-radioactive isotope of helium that can be used in nuclear fusion.<br /><br />Rare on earth but plentiful on the moon, it is seen by some experts as an ideal fuel because it is powerful, non-polluting and generates almost no radioactive by-product.<br /><br /><b> AWESOME!</b> I hope it's not someone pulling our leg. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p> </p><p>----------------------------------------------------------------- </p><p>Wanna see this site looking like the old SDC uplink?</p><p>Go here to see how: <strong>SDC Eye saver </strong>  </p> </div>

 

[toymaker]

It is pulling your leg.<br />They also plan on sending a man to Mars in couple of years...<br />And of course defeating USA's economy in a month or so <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" />

 

[thinice]

There is no way to <i>use</i> He3, at least until 2050. So forget it for now.

 

[no_way]

<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>There is no way to use He3, at least until 2050<p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br /><br />you happen to be mistaken<br /><br />http://thespacereview.com/article/536/1 <br /><br />wrt Energiya comments, i believe its one of them translation errors again. i'd have to look up the original russian article to confirm <br /><br />here we go:<br />http://www.interfax.ru/e/B/0/28.html?id_issue=11454555<br /><br /><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p><br /><b>Russia proposes mining helium-3 on Moon</b><br />MOSCOW. Jan 25 (Interfax) - Russia's Energia aerospace corporation is doing research on a project to mine helium-3, a potential fuel for future nuclear reactors, on the Moon and bring it to the Earth, and is due to finish the study before 2010, Energia President Nikolai Sevastyanov said on Wednesday<p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br /><br />No mention of moonbase by 2015, "slight" extrapolation<br />by overexcited news agents<br /><br /><br />

 

[mlorrey]

I'll bet they are talking about building a robotic rover that bakes He3 out of regolith, then will send a little bit home to Earth. No way can they afford to build a moon base.

 

[n_kitson]

Seems like a competitive positioning statement that highlights externalities of the Clipper project. This is part of trying to garner public and government support in Russia prior to the decision on the next gen Russian spacecraft.

 

[centsworth_II]

<font color="yellow">"I'll bet they are talking about building a robotic rover..."</font><br /><br />I'll bet you're right. And who's to say they can't call it a base? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[radarredux]

> <i><font color="yellow">There is no way to use He3, at least until 2050. So forget it for now.</font>/i><br /><br />The problem is that it a "chicken and an egg" problem -- there is very little research being done on helium-3 fusion because there is so little helium-3 available. But there isn't much of a financial incentive to go harvest helium-3 because there nothing that uses it right now.<br /><br />This would be a good role for government -- a serious, long-term investment in basic research to develop the technologies for production quality helium-fusion reactors. Something like the Manhattan Project for future electricity production. It would address so many problems, it would be a wonderful gift to the world.<br /><br />But alas, most businesses look towards the next quarter, and most politicians look towards the next election. Maybe China will get it right.</i>

 

[nacnud]

I really see He3 fusion as a red herring to luna exploration. Yes it has benifical propertites but it is just as hard to achive He3 fusion as D T fusion.<br /><br />The extra expense of draging He3 all the way from the moon just doesn't seem to make sense. Just build your reactor out of materials that have long half lifes once they have a gained an aditonal neutron, ie carbon fiber rather that steel.

 

[josh_simonson]

Alternately, if we didn't have an army of misanthropes blocking attempts to safely store nuclear waste, 'clean' fuels wouldn't be compelling enough to get them from the moon.

 

[fatal291]

Lol I guess they are getting jelious of their neighbors getting all the attention right now so they just decided to make up a random goal i guess.. nice try tho next time try to not copy something thats not already been announced by America..

 

[mlorrey]

Actually, He3 fusion is much harder than D-T fusion, according to the numbers, requiring temps and pressures significantly greater which are far in excess of technologies even into the forseeable future. This is an unobtainium application.

 

[john_316]

Are they still looking into acoustic fusion?<br /><br />I was wondering about that because I heard not to long ago about the make up of the sun and acosutics of the sun and then I heard they mentioned to attempt some duplicate processes with acoustics in order to use sound to creat a fusion event or something along those lines.<br /><br />I mean that would be interesting to use super high acoustics in a containment field to create fusion and everyone look at each other and say that was simple enough.<br /><br />Of course I dont think its that simple just yet. But perhaps we can take an idea from farmers when they graft trees for their orchards to creat new species of fruit.<br /><br />IS their a possibility of grafting certain nuclear forces to creat fusion without all the energy required to start it off. <br /><br /><br />I mean their has to be something that can start off a fusion process without high gravity or intense heat you would think????<br /><br /><img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /><br /><br />

 

[nacnud]

Yep, sonofusion is still being looked at. In recent developments a team used a different trigger than a nutron beam. This was important becuse the detection of nutrons is one way to show fusion is happening, if you used a nutron beam then you are open to critisium that the beam is the source of nutrons not any fusion.<br /><br />The team still saw nutrons being given off a strong indication of fusion, I don't know if anyone else has repeated it yet though.

 

[tap_sa]

<font color="yellow">"I mean their has to be something that can start off a fusion process without high gravity or intense heat you would think????"</font><br /><br />Anybody can build a Fusor and produce some fusion. The real problem is making the process efficient so that energy released from fusion is enough to sustain the process and preferably have some excess energy too for converting to other useful purposes.

 

[spacelifejunkie]

Check out this acoustic fusion link.<br /><br />http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20060121/fob7.asp<br /><br />SLJ

 

[earth_bound_misfit]

MOSCOW (AP) – The head of a leading Russian space company said it was considering plans to set up a permanent moon base by 2015, a statement that appeared to be an effort to win government funds rather than a specific action plan, news reports said Thursday.<br /><br />Nikolai Sevastyanov, the head of the state-controlled RKK Energiya company that built Soyuz and Progress spacecraft, said that mining helium-3, a potential rich source of energy, and harnessing it back to Earth would be a key priority in the moon exploration program, the Gazeta.ru and Lenta.ru Web sites reported.<br /><br />Speaking at the same seminar in Moscow, Erik Galimov, the head of the Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry Institute, also said Thursday that helium-3 could emerge as a vital source of energy as Earth's resources were being quickly exhausted, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.<br /><br />Full story here <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p> </p><p>----------------------------------------------------------------- </p><p>Wanna see this site looking like the old SDC uplink?</p><p>Go here to see how: <strong>SDC Eye saver </strong>  </p> </div>

 

[chriscdc]

It really shows how inneficient these things are concidering it takes around 4Kev to get these things to fuse and you can get 14MeV per proton out of a D-T reactor and we still can't get them break even. However there are various ways that people are developing to improve this eg a semiconductor that can absorb the energy from proton.

 

[BReif]

I suppose it is possible that they could do it, if they pooled all their resources into making that particular goal. They already have the technology to get to the Moon right now. They are using it. Soyuz was designed for Lunar missions. The Block-D booster was designed as a trans-lunar stage for the soyuz. They could do a circum lunar flight tommorrow if they wanted to do it with that hardware they already have. Even SpaceAdventures is advertizing circumlunar flights in this manner beginning in 2008-2010 timeframe. It may not be as far fetched as it sounds.

 

[themanwithoutapast]

<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p><br />"I'll bet they are talking about building a robotic rover..." <br /><br />I'll bet you're right. And who's to say they can't call it a base<br /><p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br /><br />Exactly, who says a "base" has to be a huge manned habitat-complex. If they would send 3 rovers, a communications module, a regolith "extractor" module and a return-to-earth ascent stage, I would call it a moonbase.<br /><br />Now, how far are we from reality here? Lunakod together with the communications descent module weight about 2mt was launched by a Proton. <br /><br />With today's technology there is no need to have the a lunar rover weighing 800 kg as Lunakod, thus 1 Proton launch for the rovers and a communications modules, another Proton for the regolith module and a third Proton launch for the return-module.<br /><br />A viable commercial plan to make money by returning he-3 to Earth? No, certainly not, but a (financially affordable) Russian "moonbase" - yes, certainly.