"International Space Race to Mine the Moon for Nuclear Fuel Underway"
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 July 12, 2009
The International Lunar Space Race is underway in hopes of meeting future exploration ambitions and energy demands.
Twelve people have walked on the Moon. Six of those drove a lunar rover on the Moon. All successful moonwalks were associated with the United State's NASA Apollo missions to the moon that occurred In the three and a half years between July, 1969 and December, 1972. Eugene Cernan, commander of Apollo 17 in December 1972, was the last man to walk on the moon.
It's been over 35 years since any human has set foot on an astronomical object other than the Earth. Ambitions to return to the Moon and beyond have been voiced by several world leaders, including leaders from Japan, China, India and the United States.
In January 2004, George W. Bush invoked the spirit of John F. Kennedy with a speech full of hopeful visions of space exploration. Introducing a new space policy called the Vision for Space Exploration, he said that the United States would return astronauts to the moon by 2020, and would establish "an extended human presence". This lunar base would serve as a platform for "human missions to Mars and to worlds beyond".
Bush however was unable to persuade Congress to commit sufficient funds for his ambitious dream. NASA's budget has held at $16.3 billion, more than $500 million short of the request made by President Bush. Obama has asked an expert panel to review the costly manned space program, called Constellation.
Project Constellation is scheduled to propel 4 astronauts to the lunar surface on the Orion 15 mission in June of 2019. According to NASA, the 12 year program (2009 - 2021) has the goals of gaining significant experience in operating away from Earth's environment, developing technologies needed for opening the space frontier and conducting fundamental science. NASA's budget shortfall may delay a manned mission to the moon. NASA's budget peaked in 1966 to 5.5% of the U.S. Federal Budget, during the height of construction efforts leading up to the first moon landing under Project Apollo. Current allocation levels have been steadily falling since 1966 and are now at 0.55% of the budget.
Norman Augustine, a former Lockheed Martin chief executive who chairs the review panel, admits it all comes down to money.
"With a few exceptions, we have the technology or the knowledge that we could go to Mars if we wanted with humans. We could put a telescope on the moon if we wanted," he said.
"The technology is by and large there. It boils down to what we can afford.".
The Constellation project comes with a supersize price tag of US$150 billion.
The Lunar Race
The current leading space programs in the world, with the capabilities of attaining manned missions the moon by 2030 are the U.S., China, Russia, Japan and India.
Japan's well-funded space program, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has expressed substantial interest in a lunar exploration. Japan's first lunar probe, Hagoromo, launched in 1990. JAXA has set a goal of constructing a manned lunar base in 2030.
China, working with Russia as moon partners, launched its Chang'e 1 lunar explorer on October 24, 2007; India successfully launched their first moon orbiter, Chandrayaan-1 on October 22, 2008; and Russia plans a manned lunar landing by 2025, creating of permanent lunar base by 2030.
Meeting Future Energy Demands
One of the biggest, but barely whispered, reasons for interests in manned missions to the moon is to capitalize on the the mining of helium-3. He-3 is a light, non-radioactive isotope of helium with two protons and one neutron, rare on Earth, sought for use in nuclear fusion research.
By 2050 the whole world will have a major energy problem. The depletion of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas is taking place at an increasing rate.
Scientists say He-3 holds the key to meeting future energy demands as the earth's fossil fuels dry up in the coming decades.
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Rock sample collected in 1969 by Neil Armstrong containing traces of helium-3 |
According to Lawrence Taylor, a director of the US Planetary Geosciences Institute, "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. 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."
Only 10 kilograms of helium-3 are available on earth. Over 1 million tonnes of helium-3 is available in reservoirs of moon soil and rocks.
Ouyang Ziyuan, in charge of the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program, has stated "each year three space shuttle missions could bring enough fuel for all human beings across the world." |
