Helium-3: Mining the fuel of the future on the Moon (english.elpais.com)
from boem@lemmy.world to technology@lemmy.world on 12 May 2024 15:15
https://lemmy.world/post/15324699

#technology

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optissima@lemmy.world on 12 May 2024 15:40 next collapse

Imagine claiming mining helium is the solution when free energy is right there radiating from the sun.

MrSoup@lemmy.zip on 12 May 2024 15:51 next collapse

Try driving a solar powered car.
Dunno if helium can be used in cars tho.

optissima@lemmy.world on 12 May 2024 15:52 next collapse

Laughs in electric train

MrSoup@lemmy.zip on 12 May 2024 16:35 next collapse

Me on my way gettin on train to go to the far grocery store in my non-walkable city. /s

I understand why people likes trains, but it’s not the answer to every situation.

Sunforged@lemmy.ml on 12 May 2024 16:41 next collapse

non-walkable city.

If the city is built ass backwards it would be a better investment to address that than start mining resources on the moon. Idk that’s just me though.

sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works on 13 May 2024 03:34 collapse

Yup, use the train to go medium to long distances, use a bicycle or feet to go short to medium distances.

optissima@lemmy.world on 13 May 2024 14:20 collapse

it’s not the answer to every situation

Actually, better than that, I’m not an expert! There are professionals whose jobs are to design those systems and could do better than I putting together a solution. However, more destruction of finite resources when there is easy access to an unlimited resource should be limited to final resorts.

MrSoup@lemmy.zip on 13 May 2024 14:52 collapse

I think corps prefer using finite resources to make customers depend on buying them. Imagine being able to recharge your car by what you produce with your solar panels on your roof: you will spend money only on the car itself and not on the fuel.

Alto@kbin.social on 12 May 2024 17:48 collapse

Car bad, train good

I fucking hate stroads

sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works on 13 May 2024 03:33 collapse

Nah, car good, train better. I also hate stroads.

jws_shadotak@sh.itjust.works on 12 May 2024 16:27 next collapse

Solar powered grid charges the car when not in use

tabular@lemmy.world on 12 May 2024 18:07 collapse

I now require people who offer me to try out a solar powered car to provide directions to said car, lest your comment be labeled a sarcastic cock-tease.

MrSoup@lemmy.zip on 12 May 2024 18:12 collapse
Zorque@kbin.social on 12 May 2024 17:06 next collapse

Imagine thinking there's only one solution.

credo@lemmy.world on 12 May 2024 18:07 next collapse

Starting an international corporate race to carve up the moon seems like a good choice.

Zorque@kbin.social on 12 May 2024 21:20 collapse

That obviously being the only other choice, of course.

Buffalox@lemmy.world on 12 May 2024 19:43 next collapse

Straw-man and False dichotomy.

Zorque@kbin.social on 12 May 2024 21:20 next collapse

They literally made an either or declaration of their own...

Buffalox@lemmy.world on 13 May 2024 09:31 collapse

No a better alternative was pointed out, that does not exclude that others may also exist.

[deleted] on 13 May 2024 14:06 collapse

.

[deleted] on 13 May 2024 14:06 collapse

.

MonkderDritte@feddit.de on 13 May 2024 09:45 collapse

Maybe with automated gathering and launched via mass launcher directly into earths athmosphere, it could be somewhat cost-competitive

3volver@lemmy.world on 13 May 2024 04:23 collapse

How do you suggest producing a significant amount of thrust in a vacuum using the sun?

optissima@lemmy.world on 13 May 2024 14:02 collapse

Though, of course, simple scientific curiosity may not justify the enormous cost of the undertaking. That’s where commercial interest comes in.

That’s not what this is about, the author doesn’t care about that, all they see is a finite, exploitable resource that will line their pockets.

However, to answer your question, we already have that technology.

3volver@lemmy.world on 13 May 2024 14:55 next collapse

Solar sails don’t produce a significant amount of thrust, you didn’t answer my question.

optissima@lemmy.world on 13 May 2024 23:39 collapse

Nuclear, or if you want space stuff, build a station at the Lagrange point and sling from there? I don’t need to be an expert in launch solutions to know that we shouldn’t speculate mining the moon till it’s well researched and that we have more accessible options here for the forseeable future with solar as my choice of example, so let’s not jump the gun on another finite resource?

3volver@lemmy.world on 14 May 2024 00:00 collapse

You can’t launch a rocket using solar. Nuclear is exactly what helium-3 will provide. Speculation is the first step of exploiting the Moon’s value.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium-3#Nuclear_fuel

Do your research before acting like you know what you’re writing about. There are so many things to complain about when it comes to capitalism, this is not one of them.

optissima@lemmy.world on 14 May 2024 02:28 collapse

I am referring to commercial speculation, and I literally laid this out in the second sentence, thanks!

AutistoMephisto@lemmy.world on 14 May 2024 03:28 collapse

Can a solar sail propel an object to relativistic speeds? The whole point of space travel is to go to other planets at a speed fast enough that the people going there will not be dead or elderly by the time they reach their destination. The only way to do that is by achieving light speed or damn near it. I do not want to board a solar sail vessel bound for Proxima Centauri b (4.22ly) and be dust by the time I get there.

CaptainSpaceman@lemmy.world on 12 May 2024 16:02 next collapse

Fusion is coming, who cares about He3?

SK had a 45 sec reaction, we might actually be less than 20 years away from net positive energy.

Well, it would be except it isnt a money making energy source so TPTB will only fund space miners instead.

Sabin10@lemmy.world on 12 May 2024 16:34 next collapse

Helium 3 is what we’re planning to use in fusion, that’s the point.

CaptainSpaceman@lemmy.world on 12 May 2024 17:30 collapse

Fair enough, I assumed it was for batteries

I wish they’d throw more money at cold fusion too. Just need Palladium for that one 😅

Fondots@lemmy.world on 12 May 2024 17:47 next collapse

Even if it was for batteries, unless we get fusion factors down to something that can fit in a car, power drill, smartphone, etc. batteries are still going to be a big part of the equation.

Sure, you can generate enough juice to power whatever you want, but only as long as it’s plugged in, anything that needs to get detached from the grid is still going to need batteries, and you probably don’t want your car hooked up to a 10 mile long power cord for your commute.

CaptainSpaceman@lemmy.world on 12 May 2024 18:17 collapse

True, but we now have sodium batteries so thats cool

aodhsishaj@lemmy.world on 12 May 2024 17:47 collapse

Palladium isn’t really being pursued anymore with most net gain fusion setups these days.

fusionindustryassociation.org/…/FIA-Supply-Chain-…

Halcyon@discuss.tchncs.de on 12 May 2024 19:03 collapse

ITER will not be having the first full fusion before 2040. And that’s just a prototype for science, it will not be a fusion power plant for generating energy for the public grid. So: fusion is still not very near.

IchNichtenLichten@lemmy.world on 12 May 2024 19:55 collapse

I wish this canard that fusion is right around the corner would die, we’re nowhere near. Where are people like OP getting their information from?

Blue0x@programming.dev on 12 May 2024 16:55 next collapse

Send in the Reds!

confused_code_monkey@lemm.ee on 12 May 2024 18:30 collapse

Bloody damn pixie

RedditRefugee69@lemmy.world on 13 May 2024 03:19 next collapse

Yeeeesssss. Love seeing Red Rising references. Trying so hard to get my wife to read it

lolcatnip@reddthat.com on 14 May 2024 00:08 collapse

My goodman, you sound like a Red pretending to be a Gold.

n3cr0@lemmy.world on 12 May 2024 18:23 next collapse

This whole post is a joke about Moon Nazis! Is it?

RizzRustbolt@lemmy.world on 12 May 2024 18:27 next collapse

How to get contries to develop their space programs and colonize the moon: “Its made of oil!”

Kolanaki@yiffit.net on 13 May 2024 04:50 collapse

I really wanted to go when I was a kid and was told it was made out of cheese.

Hugh_Jeggs@lemm.ee on 13 May 2024 10:22 collapse

I heard it was Wensleydale and I wasn’t that keen

optissima@lemmy.world on 13 May 2024 14:03 collapse

More Wensleydale for me then :3

rottingleaf@lemmy.zip on 13 May 2024 06:43 next collapse

I think it was 20 years ago in a sci-fi themed magazine for kids (“Miracles and mysteries of the planet Earth” or “Young erudite” maybe) where I first have read something about this thing being mined in no further than 20 years from then.

thatKamGuy@sh.itjust.works on 13 May 2024 11:31 collapse

Wait, isn’t this just the plot of that Sam* Rockwell movie - Moon?

hakunawazo@lemmy.world on 14 May 2024 19:45 collapse

Or Iron Sky?