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Should we mine Helium 3 on the Moon?
Did anyone else manage to catch "Selling the Moon" on SBS at the weekend? At first I thought it was about people selling titles for parts of the Moon, and a small part of it was. I like the way the guy picked the next area to "subdivide", "I close my eyes and put my finger on an area and if we haven't already sold it, we do that area next". They have 4 million "land holders" at the moment.
The most important part of the show was concerned with possible mining of helium 3 from the Moon for the production of fusion energy. Apparently fusion of the elements common on Earth produces large amounts on energy in the form of neutrons that degrade the walls of the containing chamber, however by using helium 3 this production is much reduced and the efficiency is much greater. Helium 3 does not occur naturally on Earth as it is shielded by our atmosphere, it is only obtained as a byproduct of current fission processes in very small quantities, while on the Moon it becomes embedded in the rocks. Helium 3 is produced from the Sun and is constantly spewed into space as part of the solar wind. As a comodity it is valued at approximately a billion dollars a ton...much more than gold. One of the Apollo astronauts (the only geologist) has set up a company with the hope of mining the material by 2020 and shipping it back to Earth and hopes that it could ultimately replace fossil fuels and current fission techniques. Makes you wonder if they "never" landed on the Moon why a person involved in the coverup would go to so much trouble doesn't it (I guess that is another nail in the conspiracy theory).
Of course this raises the quesion of should we mine the Moon? Some on the show say we should, whilst other say we should treat it like the Antarctic and leave it. Of course, if we could mine the Moon and cease to destroy our climate, would that be reason enough to justify strip mining the Moon? It's "our" Moon after all, and as far as we know, no one else is using it. Or should be learn to control our consumption here on Earth first. Of course, someone will ultimately decide to mine it, so should we start first?
So what do you think?
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