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3rd January 2019 18:16
Link to Post #1
What are they doing on the moon? China, Israel, soon the US?
Helium 3
It's abundant on the Dark Side of the Moon (also known as the 'far side')..
Helium-3 equals Billions of $$$ (or trillions of Yuan).
Why? MINING for some very valuable substances.
It is a CLEAN nuclear FUSION fuel source.
It is abundant on the dark side of the moon because it comes in from the Solar Wind and is captured with the lunar material dust.. It is not radioactive and potentially there would be no dangerous nuclear waste products as happen with conventional fission reactors.
Israel's vehicle, "Genesis" will be landing shortly, and China's Chang'e-4 probe has just touched down.
China states it will be exploring "geologically interesting substances" and solar wind.
The geological interesting substances are Helium-3 and studying the solar wind to see how much Helium-3 is deposited in a certain amount of time.
The Chinese probe is outfitted with a Rover (mobile platform) to allow it to move about to take samples for analysis. Taking adequate samples allows an "inventory" of this virtually priceless nuclear fuel to be determined.
The efforts by the 3 countries would establish the feasibility of "mining the moon" for important resources that would be used in future deep space missions as well as earth based energy systems (fusion reactors).
The Chinese Helium-3 mining effort is described here: http://www.spacesafetymagazine.com/s...ium-3-program/
About three-fourths of China’s energy is now produced by coal-fired power plants, but a typical coal train of more than a kilometre long, carrying 5,000 tonnes of coal, would be replaced by just 40 grams of He-3, dramatically reducing transportation costs.
Just eight tonnes of He-3 in fusion reactors would provide the equivalent energy of one billion tonnes of coal, burned in power stations.
China’s has a very determined plan to bring back He-3 from the Moon.
The currently landed Chinese probe/rover is that step that was predicted by China some years ago, that their intent is to aggressively acquire the needed raw materials for energy production.
Background:
He-3 is emitted from the Sun and carried throughout the Solar System by the solar winds, but is repelled by the Earth’s magnetic field, with only a tiny amount penetrating the atmosphere in cosmic dust.
On the Moon, however, which has a weak magnetic field and no atmosphere, He-3 over the eons has been deposited in significant quantities.
In recent years China has launched a remarkable plan not only to land on the Moon in the near future, but to industrialise it.
At the centre of this program lies the intent to mine He-3 and bring it back to Earth. The long-term perspective, emphasised by Ouyang Ziyuan, is shared by the famous Apollo 17 astronaut and former U.S. Senator Harrison Schmitt.
Following the December 2013 landing of China’s Yutu (Jade Rabbit) lunar rover, Schmitt observed, “China has made no secret of their interest in lunar helium-3 fusion resources..
"In fact, I would assume that this mission is both a geopolitical statement and a test of some hardware and software related to mining and processing of the lunar regolith.” Schmitt has numerous papers and books on the prospect of lunar development and helium-3 mining, and has worked closely with the group at the University of Wisconsin which is developing helium-3 fusion technologies.
Yutu landed as part of the Chinese robotic lunar exploration program named Chang’e, after the mythical goddess of the Moon.
Chang’e-1, the first probe, was launched on 24 October 2007.
It provided high resolution images of the lunar surface and data for estimating He-3 reserves. The millions of tonnes of He-3, estimated by CLEP, mean that the Moon will be the “Persian Gulf” of the solar system.
Deep-space solar system travel potential
China intends to use the Helium-3 in solar system exploration, manned crafts. A trip to Mars for instance would take 2 days using fusion drive engines. Constant earth-like gravity would exist when the fusion engine is in operation - 1g acceleration would induce such "normal gravity", and speeds would be achieving a maximum velocity of 3,000,000 km/h.
Energy Generation
Existing fusion reactor concepts are nasty. They emit a massive amount of neutrons during the fusion reaction, which destroys the materials that make up the magnetic containment vessel, and of course kill everyone in the vicinity.
A Fusion system based on Helium-3 though is relatively clean proportionately speaking -
A second-generation approach to controlled fusion power involves combining He-3 and deuterium. This reaction produces He-4 nuclei and high-energy protons.
Some D-D (deuterium/deuterium) side reactions occur, producing neutrons, but upwards of 90 per cent of the energy produced is in the form of charged particles, which can be directed away from the reactor walls by magnetic fields and used for generating electricity.
Direct Energy Conversion - Plasma charged particles from fusion can be separated by charge, using magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) or electrostatic “direct conversion”, and produce electricity directly.
ref - MHD extraction of charged particles from Helium-3 Fusion reactor - https://www.researchgate.net/publica...NERTIAL_FUSION
PS
China's Chang'e-4 probe's rover is apparently out and about
Last edited by Bob; 5th January 2019 at 21:57.
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3rd January 2019 18:40
Link to Post #2