Posted on 05/18/2006 9:05:34 PM PDT by KevinDavis
BERLIN, May 18 (RIA Novosti) - Russian spacecraft manufacturer Energia said Thursday it intends to start extracting lunar reserves of helium-3 to boost terrestrial energy supplies when a re-usable cargo shuttle comes online.
Energia head Nikolai Sevastyanov said helium-3 could eventually supplement natural gas and oil, reserves of which on Earth are rapidly being exhausted.
"The Moon has vast reserves of helium-3, and this is the closest place to Earth where it can be extracted. This fuel is highly effective and has no equivalents on our planet, where natural resources are not boundless," Sevastyanov said.
Sevastyanov earlier said that the Moon's industrial development could solve the problem of the a shortage of energy resources on Earth.
Energia intends to implement the first stage of its lunar program in 2010-2015, using Soyuz piloted spacecraft, Soyuz-FG and Proton carrier rockets.
During the second stage (2015-2020), the space corporation intends to establish a permanent lunar transportation system to include Clipper shuttles.
During the third stage (2020-2025), a permanent base is expected to be created on the Moon.
I also enjoy these space exploration topics. However, I am curious. How do we know the moon has vast amounts of Helium 3(whatever that is). I remmeber there was series on the Apollo missions that was doen by Tom Hanks. In one of the final missions they actually had a real "Geology" mission. I dont recall anything about anysort of Helium reserves.
Ah, love those 5-year plans. They've always worked out so well.
And if there are no practical H3 fusion reactors by then?
HE-3 is found on earth in microscopic amounts, and on the moon in great quantitys.
HE-3 is being looked at in a few research instutes as a replacement for oil. It is estimated that a shuttle load of HE-3 would power the entire U.S. for 100 years. It is used in a cold fusion reactor.
I can send you a URL on HE-3 or you can google it. Really interesting stuff.
Cool yeah freepmail me the url and I will google it as well. It does sound interesting . I would appreciate it.
Yeah, that does seem like a stumbling block.
Of course, by the time the Russians actually reach the Moon...
Not cold fusion, hot fusion.
How much gravel will they have to move to get one shuttle load of He3?
Am I on the space ping list?
If not, please add me.
By weight, they will process 18 metric tons of regolith to obtain 33 kilograms of He3. However, during the processing, other materials will also be obtained such as oxygen,silicon, titanium, iron, aluminum, platinum,and other volatiles.
For further information see these addresses:
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/webaccess/CommSpaceTrans/SpaceCommTransSec39/CommSpacTransSec39.html
http://fti.neep.wisc.edu/presentations/jfs_hallway.pdf
Could it be off by a factor of a few hundred million?
It'll never happen. It'll take at least a decade to set up the infrastructure necessary to bring back HE-3 from the moon. The cost of setting it all up will easily top $1 trillion. Nothing but a pipe dream.
You are on the right track. Economic analysis of space development projects is usually primitive, and this He-3 idea falls right in line.
You are prob right, but I dont think anybody here in US is thinking less than 30 years.
Of course, when the moon lander projext was going on in the 70's, we could have put our energies toward a moon development and it would be viable now (36 years later).
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