Posted on 04/06/2006 7:51:45 AM PDT by KevinDavis
Of the 12 men who have walked on the moon, the last to set foot there, Harrison (Jack) Schmitt, is the only one with scientific training (he has a Ph.D. in geology). He has seen and done things most scientists only dream of. Schmitt's work on the Moon in 1972 ranks as one of the most exciting and productive episodes in the history of exploration. His memories of the three days he spent in the Valley of Taurus-Littrow are a priceless treasure trove of scientific and aesthetic insights. Unfortunately, those experiences are not the subject of his new book, Return to the Moon.
Instead, the volume is structured as a legal brief, in which Schmitt makes the case for returning to the Moon to mine the isotope helium-3. He claims that because fossil fuels are limited in supply and because their extraction and use harm the environment, our rapidly industrializing world requires new sources of energy. The ultimate solution, he suggests, is the generation of power by nuclear fusionnot of deuterium and tritium, as is usually proposed, but of deuterium and helium-3.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanscientist.org ...
We just gave up as a country a long time ago.
I think he has the cart before the horse- FIRST we get practical fusion power using He-3, THEN we go mine it.
After we figure out HOW to mine it economically.
"Idiosyncratic" or not, at least he recognizes the problem, which is a start. I don't know about this whole fusion idea, whether it will happen in my lifetime or not, but I'm glad someone in the space program still has some kind of imagination.
Space should be left to free enterprise. The X prize is the way forward. NASA are a bunch of boobs who have saddled us with a monster launch vehicle that is expensive and dangerous. The Apollo technology was way better.
agree... we mine it when it makes economically sense to mine it, not before...
Curious what removing mass from the moon will do to the gravitational pull of the earth? could be a disaster in the long run.
Shouldn't they demonstrate that the He-3 reaction will be economic BEFORE they go back to the moon?
I am quite confident that our scratching of the surface will have no impact.
More mass is gained and lost by solar winds and dust than we could ever dream of removing.
eventually, if the moon gains mass from impacts, looses
speed from drag, the earth gains the moons mass that is
brought here, and the earth gains mass from impacts minus
what we loose to atmospheric drain, I guess the
gravitational attraction of the moon and earth will
change, and a new distance between the bodies will result,
but has someone ever worked out those kind of numbers, and
projected it from 4 billion years ago to 4 billion years
out? Would be an interesting simulation. I wonder at what
orbital speed the moon would need to stay in orbit, or
would it just move out farther, or would the fall vector
be greater than the straight line vector, and the moon
would fall to earth? Talk about moon over miami.
LOL!
What's the chance of private companies coming up with the financing and doing it?
If we wait on the government then space will never be exploited....er, explored. ;^)
If there was good reason to believe He-3 from the moon would be economic, the govt. would be pouring $$$ into it - the He-3 energy production concept still appears to have many engineering hurdles - not just supply of He-3 - to overcome.
You're right - He-3 fusion needs to be proven before we start seriously thinking about how to mine He-3 on the moon.
Still, I like how this guy thinks and we SHOULD be going back - for exploration, defense and national pride just for starters.
Personally, I've always fancied running my own moon-based solar farm and using microwaves to beam power back to Earth. Everything we need to build photovoltaic cells we can find on the moon.
:)
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