"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."
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"NASA plans to have a permanent moon base by 2024, but America is not the only nation with plans for a moon base. China, India, the European Space Agency, and at least one Russian corporation, Energia, have visions of building manned lunar bases post-2020.
Mining the moon for helium-3 has been discussed widely in space circles and international space conferences. Both China and Russia have stated their nations' interest in helium-3."
1 comment:
Wherever we go we will take our abilities and our horrors with us. There can be no running away from what we do to each other, bad or good, because it's deep in our DNA.
We need to grow up, wise up and recognize that all of humanity is in this together, that what happens in Pakistan or North Korea or Uzbekistan affects us in our comfortable homes in the US. We were hijacked by the non-thinking 33% in 2000 and 2004, let's see if we can return to what we truly are as a nation.
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