Helium 3 Options

[impala454]

I was watching some stuff on discovery last night about us going back to the moon, and they mentioned it looks like the moon would be a vast source of helium 3 (according to them, pretty much the most valuable material known to man at the moment). Basically they said sustained fusion reactors could be possible using helium 3 instead of hydrogen (because they shoot off way less damaging neutrons which destroy the reactor walls in hydrogen reactors). They mentioned that (in theory) 1 metric ton of helium 3 would be enough to power a city of 10 million for a year (100% clean energy, treehuggers). They also mentioned that it's estimated the moon has over 100 million tons of the stuff. So if we could come up with a cost effective way to mine the moon for this material we could have a great energy solution for a long time. The current cash value of the stuff as said in the program is $1 billion/ton, so I could see these missions paying for themselves at some point.

what do yall think? did anyone else see that show?

[jonathan83]

sounds interesting, but how do you mine gas exactly? and also, it's limited? i mean, i never thought about our gases being limited..i dont really know enough about it. so if someone mined oxygen out of earth, it would be possible?? just sounds strange to me.

also i wonder if it would have any negative impact on its gravity or anything?