Quote:
Originally Posted by robin
Mining helium 3 on the luna surface has long been an aspiration of Apollo 17 LMP & geologist Harrison 'Bull' Schmidt. The '..we're crazy if we dont mentality' is something that I dont subscribe to. The moon should always remain a pristine(excluding US & Russian probes, landers & rovers) environment. We can barely make it into earth orbit without NASA having kittens over pieces of foam flying off the shuttle...so imagine the logistics of full scale Helium3 strip mining & associated pollution on the luna surface, then processing then shipping it back to earth. No one nation owns the moon.Hopefully the logistics will not let this happen....my 2 cents.
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and to continue on Robins thoughts:
There would have to be constant flights to make it viable. A shuttle Bay full every few months won't be of any use. They will have to launch rockets weekly (or even daily).
Now, if they mine Helium 3 for energy saving, what about the amount of fuel burnt to go get it, and the amount of Air pollution from all the take-offs!!!! It would be like adding millions more cars to the roads.
Have you ever seen a take-off that did not leave enormous amounts of pollution???? With Spaceflight, by thinking greener, we make it blacker.