Why the Moon’s helium-3 is being called “moon gold,” and why global superpowers including U.S., Russia and China want it first.

Going to be some very expensive gas.

"Apollo samples typically showed helium-3 concentrations measured in parts per billion. That means enormous volumes of regolith must be processed to extract useful gas. The basic industrial recipe is straightforward on paper. "

  • vacuumflower@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
    31·
    1 day ago

    New frontier, my sweaty arse.

    I was reading about helium-3 mining in the same magazine for children where I was reading about “The Mummy” filming process, genetically modified small tigers as pets in the future, reconfigurable clothes made of nanobots, aliens and Median state.

    Or maybe in a bit different one, both were cool, one was more “popular science” minded, another was yellowish, but entertaining. The former was called “Young erudite”, the latter “Miracles and mysteries of the planet Earth”. Honestly I think I’m going to look them up, if they are still printed. Perhaps get a subscription.

    EDIT: Forgot to say the latter magazine for kids had its last issue released in year 2010. Which was the point of my comment, nothing new in talking about mining helium-3.