Moon Mine

[supernova1965]

I was watching The Moon is for Sale, And a question struck me should we mine the moon for Helium 3 taking into account the problems we have with energy on Earth and the effects that carbon has on our atmosphere:question:.

And what as astronomers who observe the moon do you think of the changes it would make to the way we see the moon.:question:. And would strip mining actually change the features of the Moon we observe and would we object to that:question:.

[CraigS]

Depends on the business case.
The cost of retrieving He 3 at the moment, is obviously way too prohibitive, compared with the alternatives (a no-brainer, really).
Into the future however, is a different kettle of fish.
Clearly, we'll have to stick with coal, Uranium, Hydro and (growing) Solar for a long time .. 50 years ?
I am yet to see the human generated CO2 in the atmosphere, change the directions of anything, yet.


Does anyone know the density of He3 on the moon yet ?
If not, we've got no idea of the impacts of mining it.

Visual impacts from Earth ? .. Not likely but possible.

Cheers

[bojan]

The whole this business is highly questionable from legal point of view....


I have heard of a lady (from Spain, I think) who claimed the ownership of the Sun :eyepop:

I think the next thing that will happen to her is a stream of court cases from victims of skin cancer, for example.. Not a very wise move, me thinks :P

[supernova1965]

Apparently China and Russia don't think it is prohibitive I just found these stories amoung many others and their time frame is by 2020 nine years in the future.

CHINA MINE (http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100619155028AALHLbT)

RUSSIAN MINE (http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Russia_Plans_Mine_On_The_Moon_By_20 20.html)

[snas]

Do we have the technology to use He3 in nuclear fusion? I know that we've been working on it, but how far along are we?

Stuart

[supernova1965]

In the program The moon is for sale there is a prototype reactor that with one gram of Helium 3 produced enough power to supply a US town with power for a year in one second. But as yet they have not been able to stop the reaction from destroying the containment chamber.