Turns out that India is going to the moon, in order to mine Helium 3. This comes on the heals of China landing a probe on the dark side of the moon. Interesting times.
India’s Chandrayaan-2 space probe will also land on the lunar surface. One of its goals is to locate deposits of helium-3 that are worth trillions of dollars, because it could be a fuel for nuclear fusion energy to generate electricity or propel a rocket.
Turns out that Helium-3 might make nuclear fusion viable much sooner than we once thought.
Researchers operating fusion reactor experiments at MIT, along with partnered scientists in Brussels and the U.K., have developed a new type of nuclear fusion fuel that produces ten times as much energy from energized ions as previously achieved.
The key to increasing the efficiency of the nuclear fuel was to add in trace amounts of helium-3, a stable isotope of helium that only has one neutron rather than two.
This is pretty exciting for several reasons. It is exciting to see Asia taking a leading role, and I’m the advances in nuclear fusion are exciting too. Maybe we will see a gold rush on the moon?
@physicists (1) why does Helium-3 helps fusion so much? (2) why is there so much helium-3 on the moon?