Moon Mine

[supernova1965 (Warren)]

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.

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

[CraigS]

Originally Posted by 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.

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.

Originally Posted by supernova

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

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]

Originally Posted by supernova1965

I was watching The Moon is for Sale.... .

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

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

[supernova1965 (Warren)]

Originally Posted by 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 ?

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

RUSSIAN MINE

[snas (Stuart)]

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 (Warren)]

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.