Helium 3, the future of clean energy production?

I was surfing Discovery Europe's website and i noticed a banner saying "By 2035, Earth's energy suplies will have run dry. Could Helium 3 be the answer?". Being curious i clicked the banner and i reached a game where you own a mining company on the Moon that extracts He3 and fights other companies over deposits.

The website contains a timeline which is just presenting the major events since 1959 to 2037 regarding the Moon. but the strang thing is that the timeline until 2009 is acurate and not fictional but this a conspiracy theory so this will not be discussed here.

The following FAQ's are taken from the game's website.

FAQ's

What is Helium 3?
Helium 3 is a gas that is very rare indeed on Earth but relatively abundant on the Moon. It is an isotope of helium with two protons and one neutron which could potentially be harnessed as a fuel in future nuclear fusion power stations, without creating any radioactive waste.

How much Helium 3 would be required to power the earth?
Based on existing energy consumption, about 100 tonnes of helium 3 could potentially power the Earth for a year.

How much Helium 3 is on the moon?
Nobody really knows exactly how much helium 3 is on the Moon. However, estimates suggest that there could be over one million tonnes of the gas in the first few metres of the lunar rocks and topsoil; enough to power the earth at today's levels for thousands of years.

How was Helium 3 discovered?
The existence of helium 3 was first proposed following experiments by Mark Oliphant at Cambridge University in 1934. Helium 3 is a known by-product resulting from the maintenance of nuclear weapons and it has also been found in samples of Moon rocks brought back by the Apollo astronauts.

Wikpedia.org

Helium-3 (He-3) is a light, non-radioactive isotope of helium with two protons and one neutron. It is rare on Earth, and is sought for use in nuclear fusion research. The abundance of helium-3 is thought to be greater on the Moon (embedded in the upper layer of regolith by the solar wind over billions of years) and the solar system's gas giants (left over from the original solar nebula), though still low in quantity (28 ppm of lunar regolith is helium-4 and from 0.01 ppm to 0.05 ppm is helium-3).

So what do you think could this be the future of our energy production?

That is just silly

I don't want us to mine the moon. Period. It just seems to me like instead of raping a resource from another planet, in particular our moon which is so important to earth, we could continue our search for answers here on earth. Solar energy has not been explored enough at this time, the most free energy available to mankind, and we don't take advantage of it!

Yeah the game part is silly or is it? It wouldn't suprise me if companies go to the Moon to extract that and start fighting over it... Would it surprise you?

Anyway Helium 3 is curently researched for use in energy production so its not that silly.

Originally posted by space cadet
I don't want us to mine the moon. Period. It just seems to me like instead of raping a resource from another planet, in particular our moon which is so important to earth, we could continue our search for answers here on earth.

Raping

C'mon space cadet, you can do better than this.

People get raped, resources get mined. You should not imply that a woman being forcefully penetrated and a barren moon being mined are in any way similiar.

Harumph!

reply to post by Exuberant1


Excuse me, but as a noun, to rape would mean a sexual assault of some type, forced sex.

But as a verb, raping means 'destroy and strip of its possession; "The soldiers raped the beautiful country"

Or to destroy completely; damage irreparably.

It can also as a verb, mean to force someone to have sex, but is not reserved for that sole definition.

Did you read my post? ... geez ...

Its in such a tiny amount that it wouldn't even count at the size of the Moon.

And even more we should asure the survival of our species or else we will go extinct in 1000-5000 years ...

Piers Anthony mentioned in one of his Sci'fi books that H3 could be dipped out of Jupiters atmosphere.There is supposed to be a great deal of it there.Yes I know a science fiction book .......but his science is solid.In the book there was an industry to collect it from the gas giants.What do you think?

We'd better get up there and get some pretty soon before ET takes it all , or maybe that was the deal , we keep off the Moon and ET gives TPTB all that lovely tech .

first, prove FUSION POWER

then, consider the alternatives:

heavy water moderated reactors OR mining the moon....

the answer isn't all that hard, is it? it seems as if people who wish to find reasons for a space program will need some type of 'gold' rush to garner some interest. too bad fusion has so far only proven useful in thermonuclear weapons...

it's very clear that both, D-T and D-He3 processes suffer from fuel shortages before they're even started, yet that doesn't matter very much, given the state of the program, does it? if you want to embrace nuclear energy, it'll have to be fission, i'm afraid, which is for all intents and purposes good enough, at least when (thermal, as in 'slow') breeding.is finally accepted as viable.

www.abovetopsecret.com... ch