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?

[Spectatrix]

Didn't see the show, but seems like it would be a good energy solution for sustaining lunar colonies. Maybe less feasible to mine it and return it to earth, but who knows? Once the infrastructure gets in place, it could be a good deal.