China is going to mine the Moon for helium-3 fusion fuel - Polidicks

[url]http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/197784-china-is-going-to-mine-the-moon-for-helium-3-fusion-fuel[/url] [QUOTE]China’s Chang’e lunar probe dynasty is already having a great year. The Chang’e 3 lunar lander surpassed all expectations last week to emerge from its 14th hibernation while the Chang’e 5-T1 just completed its transfer from the Earth-Moon Lagrange Point 2 into a stable orbit around the Moon. Chang’e 3’s main mission was only to take spectrographic and ground penetrating radar measurements, but the Chang’e 5 missions will bring back the first samples containing the actual prize — fusion-ready helium-3. One of the main reasons helium-3 is sought as a fusion fuel is because there are no neutrons generated as a reaction product. The protons that do get generated have charge, and can therefore be safely contained using electromagnetic fields. Early dreamers imagined that Saturn or Jupiter would be the ideal places to try and get their hands on some helium-3, but it now appears that the Chinese have set their sights on the Moon. [/QUOTE]

nazis are going to be pretty fucking upset [highlight](User was banned for this post ("Rules: "Don't post just to put your epic reference"" - Big Dumb American))[/highlight]

let the space race continue

It's only a matter of time now... [img]http://pictures.mastermarf.com/blog/2009/091009-mooncrash.jpg[/img] Jokes aside, how abundant is helium-3 on the moon? Enough to be worth the cost of missions back and forth to acquire it? [highlight](User was banned for this post ("Rules: "Don't post just to put your epic reference"" - Big Dumb American))[/highlight]

[QUOTE=Sobek-;47018405]Jokes aside, how abundant is helium-3 on the moon? Enough to be worth the cost of missions back and forth to acquire it?[/QUOTE] 1 to 50 parts per billion, in surface rock, depending on how much sunlight it gets. You'd need to process hundreds of millions of tons of rock to get one ton of He3. This is roughly comparable to He3's presence in natural gas here on Earth (He* is ~0.5% of natural gas, up to 5ppm of Earth He is He3, so about 25 parts per billion), so it doesn't make it profitable to bring it back. But, He3 is very promising as a fusion rocket fuel. You wouldn't bring it back to Earth, you'd use it to go to Mars or Jupiter or whatever. Those places are much more interesting anyways.

[IMG]http://www.sci-fimovieposters.co.uk/images/posters-m/M-0079_Moon_quad_movie_poster_l.jpg[/IMG] [highlight](User was banned for this post ("Rules: "Don't post just to put your epic reference"" - Big Dumb American))[/highlight]

Clearly they've being playing EVE & SE too long now. [highlight](User was banned for this post ("Rules: "Don't post just to put your epic reference"" - Big Dumb American))[/highlight]

They better not piss off the Hive :v:

That's amazing.

My first reaction is that it's useless to mine the fuel without the reactor that is able to use it as fuel At least we will have more funding for alternate fusion reactors instead of funding ITER only

Soon.. [t]http://firstpersonshooters.net/Games/Shattered%20Horizon/images/wallpaper/astronaut_2560x1600.jpg[/t] [highlight](User was banned for this post ("Rules: "Don't post just to put your epic reference"" - Big Dumb American))[/highlight]

[QUOTE=dwt110;47018515][IMG]http://www.sci-fimovieposters.co.uk/images/posters-m/M-0079_Moon_quad_movie_poster_l.jpg[/IMG][/QUOTE] Totally underrated movie to be honest. Didn't even know it existed until a few months back.

OP's avatar is an accurate description of my reaction. I love the moon, fuck off China

Deus Ex taught me that this is going to end in tragedy. [highlight](User was banned for this post ("Rules: "Don't post just to put your epic reference"" - Big Dumb American))[/highlight]

I thought the moon had a treaty or something protecting it from sneaky Chinese miners? [editline]27th January 2015[/editline] Not that you can get particularly "sneaky" when blasting off a rocket to outer space...

[QUOTE=UberMensch;47019357]I thought the moon had a treaty or something protecting it from sneaky Chinese miners? [editline]27th January 2015[/editline] Not that you can get particularly "sneaky" when blasting off a rocket to outer space...[/QUOTE] The only ones I know of its that you can't claim land or "air space" (space-space?), and that there's certain weapons you're not allowed to station up there I don't know about the legality of moon bases though.

[QUOTE=GoDong-DK;47019280]Totally underrated movie to be honest. Didn't even know it existed until a few months back.[/QUOTE] I called the twist like 5 minutes in, still thoroughly enjoyed it.

Guess what happens when the rest of the nations follow on China's footsteps. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0nK807k0Fw[/media] [highlight](User was banned for this post ("Rules: "Don't post just to put your epic reference"" - Big Dumb American))[/highlight]

If everyone else starts mining too, it's going to turn into one hell of a shitstorm, considering everyone signed a treaty where everything that's not on earth and not made by man belongs to everyone and is unclaimable.

[QUOTE=Sobek-;47018405] Jokes aside, how abundant is helium-3 on the moon? Enough to be worth the cost of missions back and forth to acquire it?[/QUOTE] It's pretty cheap to punt something from a moon orbit back into low earth orbit, if they had base and a decent vessel, it could be viable.

[QUOTE=GoDong-DK;47019280]Totally underrated movie to be honest. Didn't even know it existed until a few months back.[/QUOTE] I watched that movie in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and skipped 2014. I just love it and I love re watching it. Every time I notice more and more interesting details.

[QUOTE]Current US industrial consumption of helium-3 is approximately 60,000 liters (approximately 8 kg) per year;[28] cost at auction has typically been approximately $100/liter although increasing demand has raised prices to as much as [B]$2,000/liter[/B] in recent years.[[/QUOTE] Source : Wikipedia

[QUOTE=TaniaTiger;47019304]OP's avatar is an accurate description of my reaction. I love the moon, fuck off China[/QUOTE] That's good news tho, if China sends rockets to the moon in order to gather minerals, I'd expect the US and EU to do the same. You know, just so those pesky chinese don't brag to much about it. Maybe we'll see the beginning of space colonisation after all.

Too bad the US is going to be pretty behind when we finally get off our asses since we rarely care about things until they directly threaten us

[QUOTE=kenji;47019404]I called the twist like 5 minutes in, still thoroughly enjoyed it.[/QUOTE] You can call the twist just by reading that movie poster.

[QUOTE=Abaddon-ext4;47019063]My first reaction is that it's useless to mine the fuel without the reactor that is able to use it as fuel At least we will have more funding for alternate fusion reactors instead of funding ITER only[/QUOTE] But we do have engines and reactors that can use H3 as a fuel...

It'll be the Crackening all over again! [highlight](User was banned for this post ("Rules: "Don't post just to put your epic reference"" - Big Dumb American))[/highlight]

They skipped the part where they have even the slightest fucking clue how to achieve sustainable helium-3 fusion. It's not magic. You don't just throw it into a combustion chamber and light it on fire. But, hey, at least they'll have a little bit to play with.

Either the beginning of a golden age, or the moon go asplode Either way it's gonna be cool

[QUOTE=Jund;47019980]Too bad the US is going to be pretty behind when we finally get off our asses since we rarely care about things until they directly threaten us[/QUOTE] We have the knowledge and how to, what we don't have is the budget. As soon as china goes to the moon, we'll go to mars. It's a game of leap frog.