Race to the Moon for Nuclear Fuel

mkpdavies · 17-12-2006, 01:33 AM

http://www.wired.com/news/technology...?tw=wn_index_1

Quote:

NASA's planned moon base announced last week could pave the way for deeper space exploration to Mars, but one of the biggest beneficiaries may be the terrestrial energy industry.

Nestled among the agency's 200-point mission goals is a proposal to mine the moon for fuel used in fusion reactors -- futuristic power plants that have been demonstrated in proof-of-concept but are likely decades away from commercial deployment.

Helium-3 is considered a safe, environmentally friendly fuel candidate for these generators, and while it is scarce on Earth it is plentiful on the moon.

As a result, scientists have begun to consider the practicality of mining lunar Helium-3 as a replacement for fossil fuels.

Remember that film with Samantha Mumba, where the moon was mined and in the end it broke apart. Timemachine it was called and they had to use it to get to the future, where people had gone back to basic style living thanks to the massive destruction caused by the moon being desroyed. Based on that, I'd rather they got the nano light converters working!

Britannist · 17-12-2006, 02:14 AM

I read several years ago that the Japanes were quite happy for the Americans (and others) to concentrate on sending space vehicles to Mars. It would leave the Moon 'free' for them to send up rockets for the purposes of mining minerals to be (brought back and) used in energy production.

As far as I know, that still remains Japan's ambition. It should be the UK's ambition and one which can achieve alone - without the European Space Agency. Or one we can achieve with Japan.

17-12-2006, 02:14 AM	#2 (permalink)
Britannist Uber Member Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: London Posts: 22,896	Japan ambitions for the Moon I read several years ago that the Japanes were quite happy for the Americans (and others) to concentrate on sending space vehicles to Mars. It would leave the Moon 'free' for them to send up rockets for the purposes of mining minerals to be (brought back and) used in energy production. As far as I know, that still remains Japan's ambition. It should be the UK's ambition and one which can achieve alone - without the European Space Agency. Or one we can achieve with Japan.

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