Helium - 3

[Midknight]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium-3

:eek:

Whoa. Sick amounts of energy from very very little amount of substance.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/science/2004-01-14-bush-space_x.htm

Gee China is aiming hardcore to get to the moon, then suddenly we're going back. Wonder why. Space Race 2010. At least we faked getting there good enough last time, this time we'd really need to get there and beat em to it, lol.

http://xmb.stuffucanuse.com/xmb/viewthread.php?tid=3906

[Mechanicalchrist]

I remember reading about this in Newsweek a few months ago. Seems a little 'too good to be practical.'

Although it would be pretty cool.

[Darius]

At least we faked getting there good enough last time, this time we'd really need to get there and beat em to it, lol.

r u serious!?

[Midknight]

Pfft we've been over this here before, I don't think we went =P Even if they were 30 years ahead of the rest of the world technologically speaking, they still would of only had the equivilent of an average cellphone on the ship=P

[Darius]

Pfft we've been over this here before, I don't think we went =P Even if they were 30 years ahead of the rest of the world technologically speaking, they still would of only had the equivilent of an average cellphone on the ship=P

Enh, the sheer amount of power that can be genereated from fuel (especially the type they use in rockets) and the amount they used is proof enough for me.

[Dark Syaoran]

I was talking about this in IRC a few days ago. Saw it on the news and decided it was interesting enough to mention.

[Jon]

..They're gonna harvest the moon's surface. :(

[Giovanni]

Fuck the Moon. There aren't enough good resources on the Moons surface.

Bitches need to go to Mars.

[LogrusMage]

Fuck the Moon. There aren't enough good resources on the Moons surface.

Bitches need to go to Mars.


Grey rocks not good enough for you eh? You just gotta go for the red rocks.

[Perspicacity]

Breakeven fusion from He-3 hasn't been demonstrated yet. No fusion concept has, though NIF at LLNL in 2010 and ITER in Bordeaux in 2015 are credible attempts in the case of deuterium-tritium fusion. (Orders of magnitude easier than D-He3 breakeven, I remind you). A bit premature to start planning moon harvests, esp. since we haven't solved the cheap heavy-launch problem yet.

Regarding whether we went: Yeah, we went to the moon in 1969. (Fox "exposes" to the contrary). Any who believe otherwise are walking examples for why eugenics isn't such a bad idea, but I digress.... But the U.S.A. couldn't do it today if we wanted to without blowing half a trillion dollars and sinking 15 years R&D into the effort. Most of the engineering of the Saturn V is lost and gone and those who designed her are dead or retired with few functioning neurons beyond backgammon and Price is Right. We'd have to start from scratch using substandard intellectual capital, since back in those days the best and brightest went to MIT to study science and engineering rather than learning how to manage hedge funds.

[Tehan]

http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/3984/conspiracytheorieshw2.png
(http://xkcd.com/258/)

Conspiracy theories, lawl.

Back on topic, to mine the Moon, they'd have to claim it. You could say the Moon is terra nullius, in which case first to plant their flag gets it, or the first to set up shop gets it - America in the first case (assuming they really did get there), and it looks like China's going for the second. Most of the world has signed the Outer Space Treaty, which theoretically gives the Moon the same status as international waters. But chances are that won't mean squat if it turns out that a new and exciting power source can be mined on the moon. Divide it up among all countries, perhaps, like Antarctica? That would make for some interesting debates over who gets what slice.

All in all, if Moon helium does turn out to be the amazing power source of the future, it'll make for some very interesting times as various countries jostle to claim part or all of a heavenly body...

[Giovanni]

Tehan, in order for the US' claim to be valid we need to have either settled it or demonstrate that we were in the process of settling it when someone else tried to shingle our claim.