[saganite]

The He3 on the moon is regularly cited by supporters of a return to the moon on FR. This is the first I’ve heard that it’s pretty much a myth.

[agere_contra]

The He3 on the moon is regularly cited by supporters of a return to the moon on FR

Guilty! But in my defence, the great thing about He3 fusion is that not that its easy to do (it isn't - the coulumb barrier is indeed higher for 3He + D) but that the primary product is a high energy single proton. This can be contained using emg fields resulting in direct electricity generation, rather than trying to recover the fusion energy thermally.

However there are side reactions that create high-energy alphas that make the He3 route less attractive than it might be - and so the difficulty of the reaction becomes more important.

So us Regolith miners are just going to have to return to the best reason for going to the Moon - its got water, and it would make a great base for exploiting the outer solar system. If we don't, somebody else will.

[RightWhale]

• it’s pretty much a myth.

  There are two fairly large hurdles:

  An economic reaction has yet to be demonstrated, which is also the situation in all of Commercial fusion power demonstrations.

  Moon mining for a Shuttle load of He3 is prohibitively expensive by any current mining technology.