Lunar Helium 3 Could Meet Earth's Energy Demands

starannihilator writes "Helium 3, rare on the earth but abundant on the moon, may prove to be a feasible energy source with NASA's Moon-Mars initiative. Despite the American Physical Society's Report that the initiative harms science, the moon may actually benefit humans because it contains 10 times more energy than all the fossil fuels on earth. Long hailed as a potential source of energy, and outlined in detail by the Artemis Project, helium 3 may solve earth's energy crisis without any radioactive byproducts. The only problem: the reactor technology for converting helium 3 to energy is still in its infancy. Read more about the Artemis Project's information about fusion power from the moon here." Reader muditgarg points out that India has just hosted a global conference on Moon exploration and utilization, and adds a link to this related story on KeralaNext.

Comments

Re:Did you miss the scale?

[ScrewMaster]

As we've seen with Iraq, neither the US nor the UK have much compunction about violating international law

Neither do a lot of other nations. Try picking on one of them for a while. Ask all the once-subject nations of the Soviet Union about Russia and "international law". Russia certainly launched its share of military hardware into orbit, and they still do (like it or not Russia is still has effective launch capability, hell they sell it) and nobody knows what they have orbiting right now. They aren't talking. Ask the crew of the EP-3E that was "accidentally" brought down by a Chinese fighter pilot how they felt about China's respect for "international law". And if you're so concerned about the militarization of space, you might want to take a long, hard look at China's efforts in that regard. Unless you're one of those that believes that all of their payloads are "purely scientific" the reality is that control of near-space is going to be the next major Cold War. Heaven help all of us if it turns hot. But more importantly, if our military wants to get a jump on the competition: so far as I'm concerned, that's what they're being paid to do. We can build anything we want to, so can anyone else. The only potential illegalities involved are concerned with how we use such technology. And if we're all very lucky, maybe the stuff will stay on the ground. Until then, stop complaining.

Treaties and laws and international accords are fine if they serve their purpose of keeping the peace and saving lives. Unfortunately, there are too many powerful nations on this planet that have even less respect for such treaties than we do, and are even more power-hungry and imperialistic. If we wait until one of them decides to declare mastery of Earth's orbital tracks things may get even uglier. Life sucks, nobody plays fair, and to lay all the world's ills at the feet of the United States solves nothing.