Is helium 3 on the moon the future energy source for mankind?

The energy of our future.

Ore samples taken from the Moon show that they are rich in helium-3. The nuclear fusion reaction produced by the combination of helium-3 with deuterium (an isotope of hydrogen) produces very high temperatures and releases enormous amounts of energy. 25 tons of helium-3, the carrying capacity of a space shuttle, is enough to provide a year of electricity from a high-energy consumer country like the United States!

Lunar dust is rich in helium-3

Scientists estimate that about 1 ton of helium-3 can be extracted from every 200 million tons of lunar soil, and there are about 1 million tons of helium-3 on the entire moon. The Moon contains 10 times more energy in the form of helium-3 than all the fossil fuels on Earth (oil, coal, natural gas) combined. Fully developed, at the current level of human energy consumption, it is enough for 3,000 years.

This is undoubtedly a boon for humanity facing a shortage of fossil fuels.

Scientists believe that the Moon's helium-3** is a mixture of soil and rocks in the solar wind. To harness this resource, it must be refined. For example, to extract helium-3 from rock, the rock needs to be heated to more than 800 degrees Celsius.

However, the technology of nuclear fusion to convert helium-3 into energy is still in the early stages of research and development, and it will take another 30 years to mature at the current pace of research. But the nuclear fusion reactor in development is so attractive that it is "safe" and can even be built in the downtown area of any city, unlike existing nuclear fusion reactors. It looks like it will be the energy star of tomorrow.

Helium-3 on the Moon can provide energy for humans for thousands of years.

The study found that the soil on the surface of the moon is rich in large quantities of helium-3, which is initially estimated to be millions of tons. At present, scientists are using deuterium-tritium to build nuclear fusion experimental reactors, and the use of deuterium-helium-3 nuclear fusion power generation to provide energy to mankind is a topic that scientists are currently researching. As an indispensable and safe nuclear fusion fuel for nuclear fusion, helium-3 is rarely distributed on Earth, "it can be said that there is basically none".

Under the premise of the commercialization of nuclear fusion power generation, if the problem of transporting helium-3 back to Earth can be solved, 8 tons of helium-3 can solve the total amount of energy ** in China for a year. There is no problem that millions of tons of helium-3 on the moon will provide energy for all mankind for thousands of years.

But at the moment this is just an idea, and it may take thirty or fifty years or even longer for it to happen.

Yes, hydrogen is the ideal and efficient clean energy for the future, not to mention helium-3, which is inextricably linked. Once the technical difficulties are overcome in the future, hydrogen and helium-3 will bring good news to the whole of humanity.

Now we can only set him as the direction of development, after all, the current technology goes back and forth to consume energy and the energy that can be carried back, which is expensive and laborious. Personally, when you feel that the resources of the land are insufficient, you may wish to look at the ocean. The potential of the ocean is still quite large.

The Moon has almost no atmosphere, and the solar wind can reach the Moon directly, so the Helium-3 reserves on the Moon are very considerable. Scientists estimate that there are at least 500 million tons of helium-3 reserves on the moon through lunar soil samples. If tritium and helium-3 nuclear fusion power generation are used as an alternative energy source, only more than 10 tons of helium-3 per year in China and more than 100 tons in the world will be needed to meet all energy needs.

That is, helium-3 on the moon is enough for human use for tens of thousands of years.

It is estimated that about 1 ton of helium-3 can be obtained by digging lunar soil at a depth of 10 15 km3 in an area of 3 km3. Based on the current global electricity price and space transportation costs, the value of 1 ton of helium-3 is about 30 billion yuan, and the total cost of transporting 1 ton of helium-3 from the moon by a specialized spacecraft is about 300 million yuan, indicating that the development of lunar helium-3 is profitable. And with the development of space technology, the cost of space transportation will definitely drop significantly.

It is expected that by around 2050, commercial nuclear fusion power generation using helium-3 will be realized.

The development and utilization of helium-3 in lunar soil will be one of the most promising ways to solve the human energy crisis, which can meet the long-term stable, safe, clean and cheap energy needs of human society on the earth.

Hey, how did you say the moon's helium three came about? Helium three is so light, how does he keep helium three on the moon? Then this problem is like this, the beach is a stable gas, it is very light, the reason why there is no sea on the earth, the third is because these gases have escaped, to outer space, then the only ** of helium three is produced after passing through the decay of the beta.

However, there are very few people on the earth to wear, so there are basically no Haisan anymore. Well, the reason why there are seamounts on the moon is because the solar wind particles carry a large number of helium nuclei, plus the moon, and he doesn't have a magnetic field, right? So a large number of seamounts are hitting the moon, and then this helium three will be the lunar soil**, so in the soil of the moon, hey, there is sea 3a.

Some students are about to ask, you said that Haisan is so light, the earth's gravity can't keep her, so how does the moon keep the seamounts? In fact, the moon mainly relies on helium three to rely on, because it depends on the subtle electromagnetic force between the lunar soil and helium three, uh, in fact, he did not keep many sea cucumbers on the entire moon, according to estimates of about 1 million tons, this number is not much, that is, it is not much for a celestial body. Okay, let me give you an example, it's like you go to eat hot pot, you come out with the smell of hot pot.

It's the same with the moon, it's been soaking in the solar wind for 4.5 billion years, and that, uh, there's a little bit of solar wind on it, it's normal, it's like this. Uh, okay, let me add one more thing, helium-3 is an extremely precious strategic resource, because helium-3 and deuterium will not generate neutrons if they carry out nuclear fusion, so there is no radioactivity, which is very safe, and the energy released is also more. So in the future, if we achieve deuterium-tritium nuclear fusion first, then the second part will definitely go to Yuexiu Kaikaisan, which is why we should invest heavily in the aerospace industry, because our future is in the sea of stars.

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Why is helium-3 higher on the Moon than on Earth?

Helium-3 is produced by the fusion of solar nuclei and reaches the Earth and the Moon in the form of solar wind. So, why is the Moon having a higher helium-3 content than the Earth? The general explanation is that the earth has a magnetic field, which prevents the charged helium-3 from entering the earth, which is the magnetic shielding effect.

And the moon has almost no such role. And the Earth has an atmosphere while the Moon does not have an atmosphere. Helium-3 is lost in space with the Earth's atmosphere.

I think there are two reasons for that.

First, the ratio of surface area to mass is different. The formula for the area of the facing sun is s= r, and the mass of the sphere is m=4 r 3, so the ratio of the two is s m=3 (4 r), so it can be seen that the mass density and radius of the earth are greater than that of the moon, so the ability of the earth to capture helium-3 in the solar wind is smaller than that of the moon. The density of the Moon is 66% of that of the Earth, and the radius r is 3 11 of the Earth, so the Moon's ability to capture helium-3 in the solar wind is twice that of the Earth.

Second, according to the theory that 65 million years ago, Wang Weixing knocked out the ancient core, part of the lava, and the inner crust to form the moon, and the earth's crust was ruptured, the continents drifted, and the dinosaurs became extinct. The dust surrounding the Moon is at least 10 times the diameter of the Moon, and the Moon's surface facing the Sun is 100 times the area of the current Moon's wind. Considering that the dust is not tightly distributed, assuming only a 10% capture rate, these dust will remain around the Moon for about 10 years, and the ability to capture solar wind helium-3 is 100 times higher than that of the current Moon.

For these reasons, it is not difficult to understand why the Moon's helium-3 content can reach 2 million times that of the Earth.

It is the raw material for light nuclear fusion.