Mining the Lunar Surface : A New Race in Space?

Hello Steemians. Here I bring a new post on a very futuristic topic. In this topic I have covered the new ideas that are being debated around the world. With these new achievements in space technology the face of humanity will change drastically and our world will be a very different place to live in. Please visit to learn more.

The end of World-War II in 1945 gave birth to Cold War between USA and USSR. The race between USA and USSR to become the superpower of the world resulted in USSR sending its first satellite in space, Sputnik 1 on 5th October, 1957. It was a simple communication satellite which was launched to demonstrate the future possibility of satellite communication.

Replica of Sputnik-1[Source : Wikipedia]

This launch triggered the Space Race between USA and USSR. On April 12th, 1961 USSR sent the first human in space, Yuri Gagarin and claimed its supremacy in space. But later, the race reached its peak when NASA launched the spacecraft Apllo-11 and landed the first human on lunar surface, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on July 20, 1969. Despite many attempts USSR could not achieve it and finally started concentrating on low earth orbit explorations. However, many conspiracy theories loom around the veracity of NASA Moon Landing Mission.

Still from the Footage of Neil Armstrong Landing on Moon[Source : Wikipedia]

The space race blessed the human beings with the widespread use of satellite communications. Later some other counties also joined the race to utilize it for their national benefit and to display their might in the world. Space agencies like CNSA(China), ISRO(India), ESA(European Union), JAXA(Japan) are the leading agencies in this list. All these agencies are doing great achievements in a progressive way. Many of them are planning missions to other planets of the solar system and a few have already achieved it. Private space agency like the SpaceX has also joined the industry and is an active and favorite player in the race.

But the question that always baffles the laymen is : What is the benefit of such expensive space missions?

For last few decades the laymen remained unanswered. But now perhaps the answer box is to be open. In the near future we may begin to see the direct benefits of the rigorous space missions. Some of the agencies are planning missions which could bring some revolutionary technologies which would directly benefit the world.

Leading Space Agencies of the World[Source]

Mining the Lunar Surface for Helium-3 :

The widely researched Deuterium-Tritium fusion reaction yields very high energy neutrons which may induce radioactivity on the container material. But the fusion reaction between Deuterium and Helium-3 yields one normal Helium and one proton which has smaller mass than neutron.

²₁D + ³₂He → ⁴₂He + ¹₁p + 18.4 MeV

So it carries less energy and hence it does not induce radioactivity on the container material. Some scientists believe that Helium-3 may be an efficient source of fusion energy.

The Deuterium/Heliun-3 Fusion Reaction[Source]

Helium-3 is found in trace amount on earth. However, the Sun continuously emits helium-3 in its solar wind. But due to earth’s magnetic field they cannot reach earth. Moon does not have such shield. Hence, it is believed that abundance of Helium-3 which hit the lunar surface has been deposited on the lunar surface over millions of years.

Some space scientists along with some space industry entrepreneurs believe that it could be a clever idea to mine the lunar surface for Helium-3 and bring it back to earth which could possibly be a source of future Helium-3 fusion reactors. The Apollo programme’s geologist Harrison Schmitt in his book Return to the Moon had made concerns over mining the lunar surface for Helium-3. In the recent times it has got very much attention. A lunar probe mission held by the new company Moon Express which was formed with the goal of winning the Google Lunar X Prize has plans to mine the moon for natural resources like Helium-3 and Titanium. The probe is expected to be launched in 2017 itself. Moon Express chairman Naveen Jain said in an interview that it has further plans to use these resources to set up human society on the moon.

Moon Express Chairman Naveen Jain Interview on CNBC[Source]

Many unofficial sources claim that other countries like China, India and European Union are planning mission to mine the lunar surface for Helium-3. The authenticity of the claims are not yet clear. Noted ISRO space scientist Sivathanu Pillai once made a statement at the Observer Research Foundation’s Kalpana Chawla Space Policy Dialogue 2017, held in New Delhi in February that ISRO is capable of mining the lunar surface for Helium-3. However, he didn’t mention any such plans of ISRO in near future.

However, these missions have been criticized for not being feasible by many scientists. The Deuterium/Helium-3 fusion reaction requires much higher activation energy than that of Deuterium-Tritium fusion reaction. Such a high energy has yet not been achieved in any fusion reactor. Some others again points to the economic as well as technical feasibilities.

The Hydrogen Mining Mission :

The century old question, whether there is water on moon was answered when the Moon Impact Probe (MIP) of ISRO’s first lunar mission Chandrayan-1 discovered the existence of water on moon on 25th September, 2009. The MIP had landed into the south pole of moon near the Shackleton Crater. ISRO’s indigenous payload onboard the MIP, CHACE(CHandra’s Altitudinal Composition Explorer) detected water in vapor form and NASA’s payload included in the MIP, Moon Mineralogy Mapper(M3) had detected it in the ice form.
This discovery opened up many possibilities of future technologies. An article headlined, “Mining the Moon : How the Extraction of Lunar Hydrogen or Ice Could Fuel Humanity's Expansion into Space” authored by William Stone published on 11th June, 2009 in the IEEE Spectrum discusses the growing interest in this field. But this time private agencies are in the lead as the governments don’t seem to be interested in the field due to political reasons.

Liquid Hydrogen and liquid Oxygen are used in the spacecrafts as propellants for space explorations. But there is no place for refueling a spacecraft in the space. Low Earth Orbit is the best place for setting up the refueling stations. Construction of refueling stations in the low earth orbit by lifting the fuel payloads from earth surface is not economically feasible. Due to the high gravity of earth it needs very much energy to lift the fuels. The Shackleton Energy Corporation has a brilliant idea to extract the hydrogen and oxygen from the lunar ice and convert them to liquid form and bring them to the refueling stations in the low earth orbit.

A Documentary on Shackleton Energy Corporation by the channel, Smithsonian[Source]

The company claims that it is 20 times cheaper to lift these fuels from the lunar surface to the low earth orbit than to lift them from earth. They claim that this idea would tremendously reduce the cost of exploration to the other planets of the solar system and help the expansion of humanity in the solar system. This idea could also benefit space tourism in the near future.

Political Concern :

Race to exploit the moon’s resources may soon get unpleasant as there is no treaty or understanding between the space agencies regarding the celestial properties. Almost all space agencies are planning missions to moon spending billions of dollars every year. May be for this reason the agencies are considering a return to the moon.

May be in few decades we will see drastic changes in the world where we live in when space exploration will be a piece of cake and collaborative effort to revive our ailing earth using the space technology should be a top priority of the space missions rather than individual goals. Otherwise if we spread our humanly instinct in outer space too, then such space missions would turn to be meaningless. No other creature on earth would be more unfortunate than us.

References:

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