Iron Horse said:
Now NASA is talking about building a moon base (WHY)
The Orion landers will not explore various parts of the moon. They will all go to the south pole of Luna (the actual name of our moon). That is where the highest concentration of Helium3 is located. It is also where there is some frozen water just beneath the surface.
Helium3 is a light isotope of Helium. Regular Helium has an atomic weight of 4 a.m.u. Helium3 has an a.m.u. of 3; one less neutron than regular Helium. In a nuclear fusion reactor, Helium3 would produce tremendous energy with virtually no radioactive waste. There is no Helium3 on Earth. It is a by product of the fusion of Hydrogen in the sun. It is ejected from the sun out into space. The Earth's electro-magnetic field deflects the stuff from Earth, but it does coat the surface of Luna.
The south pole of Luna is where the highest concentration of Helium3 is located; it is where the small amount of water is located; it is where there is continual sunshine. For these reasons, Luna's south pole is where a permanent base will be constructed.
We have not stated that the harvesting energy resources is our reason for going back to Luna. China has. They hope to beat us to Luna's south pole and claim it. They have openly stated that the purpose of their lunar program is to go to the south pole and harvest Helium3.
Is harvesting Helium3 practical, or even possible? A hundred years ago, how many would have said that drilling for oil beneath the arctic ice cap was possible? Or more unimaginable, who would have believed that you could dig a material out of the desert, separate isotopes in a centrafuge, and them produce a material that could make electricity and bombs powerful enough to destroy the world?
It is ironic that the first race to the moon served as vicarious metaphorical substitute for war with our former Communist enemy, the Soviet Union; yet now the second race to the moon may serve as the impetus for real war with our rising Communist nemesis, the People's Republic of China.
BTW, this is not a joke, know what you call someone who spends all his time standing outside at night staring at the moon and dreaming about what is out there among the stars? A lunatic. At least that's what those who said that space travel could never happen called the ones they thought were just dreamers.
Long ago, electricity was considered by most who had heard of it as nothing more than the frivolous pursuit of highfalutin' intellectuals. In 1831, the prime minister of Great Britian sarcastically asked Michael Faraday what use his experiments in electricity were. Faraday shrewdly replied that he really didn't know for sure what practical use might come of the phenomenon, but, "I'm sure that one day you'll be able to tax it." Twenty years after Faraday's statement, it took Californians 6 months to get a message to the east coast. Thirty years after Faraday's statement, it took 1/60 of a second for each dot and dash of Morse Code to telegraph from California to the east coast.
Less than 200 years later, it is difficult to envision the survival of the modern world if electricity suddenly ceased to exist. I think we are starting to get a glimpse of what the world might be like without petroleum, however, and it is a scary thought.
Electricity is the future of energy; Helium3 is likely the source of that electricity. And the moon is the source of that Helium3. Perhaps NASA and the politicians need to do a better job of articulating the very practical rationale for going back to Luna. On the other hand, maybe they are not saying much because they do not want to stir up tension with China and the rest of the world.
Congress wanted to impeach Jefferson for the Louisiana Purchase. Even Jefferson didn't know what he'd bought. Lewis and Clark had to find out. Mexico was furious at the incursion into their claimed territory and sent a military unit which failed to intercept them. Zebulon Pike and others were intercepted and turned back. From that point on, the U.S. government had to covertly send Jedediah Smith and others to scout the territory. Smith told the Mexicans who arrested him that he was just a fur trapper trying to eek out a living trapping beaver. While this was partly true, he was secretly looking for topography that could accommodate a wagon road to facilitate the future settlement of the west and the fulfillment of Manifest Destiny. They didn't have an inkling his discoveries and the maps soon provided by John Freemont would also enable an unimaginable form of transportation in the form of the transcontinental railroad. Rather than tell China that that Helium3 is ours, we can just say we are untertaking peaceful scientific exploration. Anybody now want to give all that land back to Mexico? The Alaskan wasteland was called "Seward's Folly". Anyone want to give all that gold and oil back to the Russians? Mining minerals from the moon may seem absurdly difficult to some. Jefferson thought it would take 100 generations for Americans to fill up the continent. But the unforseen railroad burst upon the scene and it only took four. In the same manner, new forms of space travel may easily make the exploitation of Luna's minerals a reality.
Those with no vision accomplish little. The day will come, perhaps 200 years in the future, when those who said going to the moon was foolish will be looked upon as the ones who were lunatics.
