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| 25 Jul 2012 05:03 AM |
Apparently the Moon has large reservoirs of Helium 3, a very "rare" isotope of Helium, that if the Human race began harvesting, could power humanity for the next 1000 years.
What is you stand on this? Do you think we should mine the Moon for energy security, or preserve it, for scientific study?
Please no flaming, etc. Lets have an interesting, intellectual debate. |
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| 25 Jul 2012 05:07 AM |
| I think we should go up and mine it, But the amout of money it will cost to get up onto the moon. is outrages. Not to mention the cost of operasion. and how the heck will you transport it from the moon to earth without releaseing it into out atmophere? |
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| 25 Jul 2012 05:08 AM |
| Remember helium 3 is a gas not a solid |
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master36
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| Joined: 27 Nov 2007 |
| Total Posts: 13640 |
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| 25 Jul 2012 05:09 AM |
Remember helium 3 is a gas not a solid _______________________________________
Really? I thought is was a solid. |
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| 25 Jul 2012 05:18 AM |
Sadly he has a point, it is a gas, so it would be fairly expensive to harvest. But you must remember, this could become the fuel for humanity for a thousand years! The estimates they have for this business are not a multi-billion, but nearly a trillion dollar industry. They would definitely make enough money from it to cover the costs of transportation. Not only that, but it would spur a healthy competition between governments and businesses to have to most efficient way of transporting it, which in turn would cause technological advancements, create a new boom in the economy, and re-invigorate many space programs around the world. |
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| 25 Jul 2012 05:23 AM |
| So were are the crew going to live? sleep? eat? you going to either A) make transports to ship food B) Inhabit moon. |
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| 25 Jul 2012 05:24 AM |
| A second Planet doesnt sound bad but costs a lot and i mean trillions of dollars. |
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Cheater
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| Joined: 29 Jun 2007 |
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| 25 Jul 2012 05:24 AM |
| Think of the consequences if the moon would be away... |
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| 25 Jul 2012 05:27 AM |
| Make a moon base. NASA did some recent testing with one of their probes in Lunar orbit (Can't remember the exact name, I think it is Lunar Prospector or something) and found that there is millions of gallons of water frozen under the surface of the moon, that any crew could harvest for drinking. And of course their is always the possibility of making a base completely independent from the Earth, by having it make its own resource (Water harvesting as stated above, and having a greenhouse to grow food in). Remember, they estimate that this will be a trillion dollar industry, they will have the money to research and develop anything. |
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| 25 Jul 2012 05:27 AM |
also the moon gets hit by meteor everyday (more than earth does) so buildings on the moon are at jeperdy of being crushed.
Another thing is competion for land between countries, We dont want Space wars. |
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| 25 Jul 2012 05:28 AM |
| The entire moon isn't made out of Helium 3, even after mining it of Helium 3, most of the moon would still be their. What most people are worried about is the lost of potential scientific data. |
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| 25 Jul 2012 05:29 AM |
| Hey if we cold harvest energy from sun, create heat, seperate heat monicles into atoms, and fuse them together we can make laser guns :o |
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| 25 Jul 2012 05:31 AM |
| Can;.'t we go to mercery and creats energy? from the heat and constint sunlight. |
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| 25 Jul 2012 05:35 AM |
Exactly. The moon is hit by meteorites every day. But what really is worrisome is the big ones, ones that could wipe out an entire mining site, or all the mining sites on one side of the moon. This fear would spur private, and government agencies to develop ways to protect their assets against such things. This in turn would pave the way for Earth defense systems, that we could use to turn away massive asteroids that could be civilization ending.
And about the space wars, it is highly unlikely people would go to war with each other in space, because, as it is with nuclear weapons on Earth, it is mutually assured destruction. You blow up our base? We will blow up yours. And this is the moon, not like on Earth, where if you survive the explosion, you are ok. If you launch a bomb at a space colony, and it makes a hole, everyone in that colony is going to die, because their is no atmosphere on the moon. In this particular situation, I believe it is safe to assume that the benefits of war do not outweigh the consequences. |
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| 25 Jul 2012 05:37 AM |
| While your idea does make sense, as mercury is closer to the sun than the earth, it would be impractical, because you would need some way of transferring the energy from Mercury to Earth. That is a lot of miles of power lines, and as far as I know, their is no way of transferring power wirelessly. |
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| 25 Jul 2012 05:40 AM |
Wow your right no atmophere will prevent all earths wepon usless (like guns) So mining the moon would be a good thing, sort of like a LONG term investment. |
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| 25 Jul 2012 05:41 AM |
| Big Batteries? Could transfer energy :3 |
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| 25 Jul 2012 05:44 AM |
| Yes, but that still is a lot of cash. The reason it might work with the moon, is because the moon is the closest celestial body to us. Mercury is Nearly 80 Million miles away, compared to the moons 300,000 miles away. I'm not sure a trillion dollars could cover that |
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| 25 Jul 2012 05:45 AM |
| understood. But maybe the tecnoligy will one day be that advanced. Who knows there might be other life forms out there. |
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| 25 Jul 2012 05:46 AM |
| There is other life forms out there. It would be complete ignorance to even remotely thing we are alone in such a massive place. |
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| 25 Jul 2012 06:04 AM |
>harvest energy from the sun are you retarded >go to mercury are you retarded |
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| 25 Jul 2012 11:02 AM |
| No we are not retarted but we are Smart and intellingent, Not like you. |
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Aztekia
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| Joined: 10 May 2012 |
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| 25 Jul 2012 11:18 AM |
"Exactly. The moon is hit by meteorites every day."
Sounds brutal.
"But what really is worrisome is the big ones, ones that could wipe out an entire mining site, or all the mining sites on one side of the moon."
Giant masses of matter hurling toward us? GET THE GOODS!
"This fear would spur private, and government agencies to develop ways to protect their assets against such things."
Trying to stop a massive chunk of matter? Done.
"This in turn would pave the way for Earth defense systems, that we could use to turn away massive asteroids that could be civilization ending."
Trying to stop planetoids from crashing into our moon? What? No problem, my guess is a simple 200 years from now.
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