Moon Energy

No, I'm not talking about tidal forces, but rather a wild idea to mine the moon for Helium 3.




"When compared to the earth the moon has a tremendous amount of helium 3," said Lawrence Taylor, a director of the US Planetary Geosciences Institute, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences.



"When helium 3 combines with deuterium (an isotope of hydrogen) the fusion reaction proceeds at a very high temperature and it can produce awesome amounts of energy," Taylor told AFP.



"Just 25 tonnes of helium, which can be transported on a space shuttle, is enough to provide electricity for the US for one full year," said Taylor....



Ok, so the article doesn't deal with the real technical problems or saftey issues of shipping all that ore or energy back to earth, but it's interesting in theory. I can see this being used as a premise for some future science fiction movie.

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