One of the next private companies to attempt a moon landing in the new year will be Japan's iSpace.It is expected to be available by January 2025 at the earliest.thefirst attempt failedThe January launch will take place on SpaceX's Falcon 9.By ride shareFirefly's Blue Ghost Lunar ModuleIt will take several monthsTo reach the moon.
The lander, named Resilience, will carry a tiny spacecraft called Tenacious to the moon's surface. Tenacious will collect samples of the moon's regolith, and how NASA will collect them afterward is undetermined.
In the long run, iSpace brought more important news.announce an agreementWith a company called Magna Petra. Magna Petra has developed a technology to extract helium-3 from lunar soil. This “promises energy-efficient isotope extraction and collection with minimal impact on the lunar surface.” Details regarding the new technology were not disclosed in the announcement.
Helium-3 is rare on Earth and is primarily produced by the radioactive decay of tritium, but it is abundant in the lunar regolith deposited by billions of years of solar wind. Isotopes have applications in “national security, medical imaging, quantum computing, and fusion energy.” The last application has clean energy advocates particularly excited.
One of the great issues of our time revolves around energy. How do we generate enough energy to keep our technological civilization growing and thriving? How do we generate energy that doesn't affect us?
Solar, wind, nuclear, and even fossil fuel plants with carbon capture technology have their supporters. But the holy grail of clean, virtually limitless energy lies in fusion technology.
Nuclear fusion is defined by the International Atomic Energy Agency A phenomenon in which two light atomic nuclei fuse to produce a heavier atomic nucleus and an enormous amount of energy. Nuclear fusion is the process that powers the sun. Scientists have been trying to recreate that process on Earth for decades. A number of publicly and privately funded efforts are underway to build fusion power plants.
Most fusion projects involve fusing deuterium, an isotope of hydrogen that can be extracted from seawater, with tritium, also an isotope of hydrogen. Difficulties include creating fusion reactions that are stable, long-lasting, and require less energy to produce than they produce. Fusion of deuterium and tritium also produces radioactive byproducts that must be disposed of periodically.
The main advantage of helium-3 as a fusion fuel is that reactors using helium-3 are easier to maintain because little or no radioactive by-products are produced. The disadvantage is that higher temperatures are required to sustain the reaction.
However, a company calledhellion energyWe believe we have solved that problem with a magnetic containment system. The company aims to create helium-3 fuel using more conventional deuterium-tritium fusion and deuterium-deuterium fusion.
The secret to creating a fusion energy economy using the Moon's helium-3 is to create a supply chain to mine and transport the isotope from the Moon to Earth. The costs of mining and transportation are bound to be somehow cheaper than Helion's earth-based manufacturing process.
Trace traces of helium-3 were found in samples brought back by Apollo astronauts, which is why we know it exists in the first place. Recently, the ChineseTrace amounts of isotopes foundAmong the samples brought back by the Chang'e 5 mission. The amount needed to power the world is measured in tons per year.
SpaceX's spacecraft human landing system could provide the key to developing the economies of Earth and the moon. Starship HLS will deliver astronauts and supplies to the growing lunar base. The same vehicle could deliver cargo to Earth, including resources including helium-3 mined from the moon. With a payload of 150 tons, it could be the perfect vehicle to establish the first trade routes between Earth and other worlds.
The first Apollo missions to the moon were motivated by political prestige with a little science. While these motivations still exist for the Artemis program, economic development is increasingly motivating the modern race to the moon.
Will the dream of nuclear fusion power generation powered by helium-3 become a reality? perhaps. Probably not.
But the agreement between iSpace and Magna Petra to begin returning that isotope to Earth is a small step that could spark a major leap forward in the fusion energy economy that could change human civilization for the better. There is a possibility that
Mark R. Whittington writes,Why is it so difficult to return to the moon?” Similarly “To the moon, Mars and beyond”, and more recently”Why will America return to the moon?” He blogs at:Karma John's Corner.
