it was a time of wonder and discovery
six trips together in the circus reveal
much about our cases celestial neighbor
and changed forever the way we view our
own planet today NASA is looking towards
returning to the moon a permanent lunar
base would complement Space Station
freedom and provide a springboard for
manned missions to Mars and if
researchers at NASA's Center for the
commercial development of space in
Wisconsin are successful the first lunar
settlers will also be miners actually
this large automated vehicle would do
most of the work processing the moon's
rocks and soil to remove a potentially
valuable product helium-3 just 25 metric
chance of this rare isotope roughly the
capacity of the shuttle cargo bay could
provide enough energy to generate all
the electricity used in this country in
an entire meal helium-3 is produced by
fusion reactions in the Sun and carried
through space by the solar wind birds
atmosphere shields us from the solar
wind but it has been depositing helium-3
on the moon for more than a billion
years former senator Jack Schmitt his
part of the Apollo 17 mission rich
marked our last or as he likes to say
our most recent journey to the lunar
surface we can't always use fossil fuels
for the production of electricity there
are many environmental reasons why you
don't want to do that one of the most
popular now of course is the addition of
co2 to the atmosphere we don't need to
panic but we ought to be making those
kinds of research and development plans
that we have an alternative to coal and
other fossil fuels in the
not-too-distant future studies indicate
that the amount of radioactivity and a
device like this generating energy from
helium 3 will be one millionth less than
in nuclear systems used today and no
greenhouse gases acid rain or solid
wastes will result the proposed mining
system will be equally kind to the lunar
environment once helium-3
the untainted wants
return to the surface leaving it
essentially under the process should
also produce a number of byproducts
including water which will be a great
value to a lunar colony and according to
jerry Kucinski a professor at the
university of wisconsin and member of
the nasa commercial development e-way
current oil prices makes helium-3 an
even more attractive alternative at
today's prices helium-3 would be worth
four billion dollars a ton who should
make a shuttle load worth about a
hundred billion dollars and that's
enough I think for any businessman to
figure out a way to make a profit
helium-3 mining using the moon's
resources to meet future energy
requirements on earth