ZebraFeeds Demo

Demand for Helium-3 is steadily increasing primarily for Neutron detectors.for cargo screening (for illegal fissile material).

Demand for Helium-3 is steadily increasing primarily for Neutron detectors.for cargo screening (for illegal fissile material).

In 2008, a total of 80,000 liters of He3 were sold worldwide, at an average price of $100 per litre, i.e. total market of $8 million. Then starting 2009 the DOE has introduced rationing and the price jumped dramatically.

In 2008, a total of 80,000 liters of He3 were sold worldwide, at an average price of $100 per liter, i.e. total market of $8 million. Then starting 2009 the DOE has introduced rationing and the price jumped dramatically.

In 2010  DOE released 14,000 liters per year, at a spot market auction price of $2,000 per liter, $15,000 per gram or $500,000 per troy ounce, over 300 times the price of gold or platinum by weight.   

In 2010  DOE released 14,000 liters per year, at a spot market auction price of $2,000 per liter, $15,000 per gram or $500,000 per troy ounce, over 300 times the price of gold or platinum by weight.   

*Would it depress the market price today?  This depends on the size of the market, and there is little data.

*Would it depress the market price today?  This depends on the size of the market, and there is little data.

The US [[Tritium]] and helium-3 stockpile sizes were classified until 2010, because they give a hint as to how many US nuclear weapons are still functional.  When it was declassified, there was a a shock because the stockpile was much smaller than anybody realized, and at the same time global demand was rising and there were only a few years of supply left, so rationing was introduced.

The US [[Tritium]] and helium-3 stockpile sizes were classified until 2010, because they give a hint as to how many US nuclear weapons are still functional.  When it was declassified, there was a shock because the stockpile was much smaller than anybody realized, and at the same time global demand was rising and there were only a few years of supply left, so rationing was introduced.

The cost of soft landing even a small probe on to the lunar surface may easily cost more than $200M. How much He3 a small lander would manufacture and how many grams per day have yet to be determined.  Production will be determined by the method of processing.

The cost of soft landing even a small probe on to the lunar surface may easily cost more than $200M. How much He3 a small lander would manufacture and how many grams per day have yet to be determined.  Production will be determined by the method of processing.

====Chronic shortage of Helium-3 isotope could be resolved by mining lunar regolith====

====Chronic shortage of Helium-3 isotope could be resolved by mining lunar regolith====

Demand for Helium-3 is steadily increasing primarily for Neutron detectors.for cargo screening (for illegal fissile material).

Demand for Helium-3 is steadily increasing primarily for Neutron detectors for cargo screening (for illegal fissile material).

In 2008, a total of 80,000 liters of He3 were sold worldwide, at an average price of $100, i.e. total market of $8 million -

In 2008, a total of 80,000 liters of He3 were sold worldwide, at an average price of $100, i.e. total market of $8 million -

The obvious terrestrial solution to the He3 supply problem is to make more tritium in the same way that it was made for nuclear weapons and then let it decay to He3.  A blanket of lithium six is placed in the neutron flux outside the core of a nuclear reactor.  Tritium is generated in the lithium.  If there is a market for He4, that would be a by-product.   

The obvious terrestrial solution to the He3 supply problem is to make more tritium in the same way that it was made for nuclear weapons and then let it decay to He3.  A blanket of lithium six is placed in the neutron flux outside the core of a nuclear reactor.  Tritium is generated in the lithium.  If there is a market for He4, that would be a by-product.   

   

   

At present the US Govt is investing heavily in Boron-10 technology as a second rate alternative to Helium-3 for neutron detectors.

At present the US Government is investing heavily in Boron-10 technology as a second rate alternative to Helium-3 for neutron detectors.

According to Harrison Schnmitt in his 2006 book "Return to the Moon", the Mark-II lunar miner of the Wisconsin Uni Fusion Institute, would cost about $1 billion. This Mark-II plant would produce 33 kg of He3 per year. This is several times more than needed to service the existing terrestrial He3 market .... presumably we could build a plant to produce 10 kg per year for $500 million?

According to Harrison Schnmitt in his 2006 book "Return to the Moon", the Mark-II lunar miner of the Wisconsin University Fusion Institute, would cost about $1 billion. This Mark-II plant would produce 33 kg of He3 per year. This is several times more than needed to service the existing terrestrial He3 market .... presumably we could build a plant to produce 10 kg per year for $500 million?

== Applications  ==

== Applications  ==

--(*) Bullets in content area are broken

--(*) Bullets in content area are broken

--(/) Buttons need work

--(/) Buttons need work

All except CSS2 Desktop:

All except CSS2 Desktop:

CSS3 Tablet:

CSS3 Tablet:

--(*) Spotlight Column Not Installed

--(*) Spotlight Column Not Installed

* ( ) Buttons need redesign

- (*) Buttons need redesign

CSS3 Phone:

CSS3 Phone:

* ( ) Buttons need redesign

- (*) Buttons need redesign

   (*) Header size too big

   (*) Header size too big

   ( ) Add home link to name graphic

   ( ) Add home link to name graphic

CSS2 Mobile:

CSS2 Mobile:

* ( ) Buttons need redesign

- (*) Buttons need redesign

   ( ) Add home link to name graphic

   ( ) Add home link to name graphic

* ( ) Header Text too small

- (*) Header Text too small

HTML 3.2

HTML 3.2

   ( ) Dillo can't see bookmark background graphic

   (~) Dillo can't see bookmark background graphic (can't fix)

- (*) Finish porting table layout from MSIE 6

- (*) Finish porting table layout from MSIE 6

- (*) Need background sans Earth

- (*) Need background sans Earth

MSIE 8 & 9:

MSIE 8 & 9:

- (/) Gradients need work

- (*) Gradients need work

* ( ) Button widths aren't consistent

- (*) Button widths aren't consistent

Splotch:

Splotch:

Mobile Dopoff:

Mobile Dopoff:

   (*) CSS Header too big

   (*) CSS Header too big

* ( ) CSS buttons are too small

- (*) CSS buttons are too small

</PRE></TT>

</PRE></TT>

   

   

   

   

It is easier to start the industrial development on Earth's moon because 1) It is possible to use remotely controlled machines on Luna with less than a three second round trip communications delay.  2) Transportation of machinery from Earth to Luna is cheaper and quicker than transportation to Mars.  3)It is possible to ship products off of Luna more cheaply than Mars can ever achieve and start paying for the investment.  Once there is reasonable return on investment, industry will expand quickly.  Remotely controlling machines on Mars from Earth is tortuously slow with round trip communication delays ranging from eight to forty-four minutes and communications black outs lasting up to a month every two years.  The transportation to and from the rest of the Solar System from Mars is impeded by its atmosphere but from the moon transportation can be by low cost all electric means, achieving orbital velocity on the surface in the ambient vacuum.  The lunar gravity well is only 22.4% as deep as the gravity well on Mars in terms of the energy needed to achieve low orbit.  The only way Mars could compete with the ease of electric launch and [[Eddy Current Brake to Orbit#Landing on Luna|landing]] available on Luna is to lunaform Mars, shading it with large satellites until the atmosphere freezes out.  Material for such shades could come from Deimos, Phobos, or Luna.  The industry to colonize and lunaform Mars is easiest to start on Luna.  If industry were started on Mars, it would require people there from the start who would need to be supported initially by goods shipped from Earth.   

It is easier to start the industrial development on Earth's moon because 1) It is possible to use remotely controlled machines on Luna with less than a three second round trip communications delay.  2) Transportation of machinery from Earth to Luna is cheaper and quicker than transportation to Mars.  3) It is possible to ship products off of Luna more cheaply than Mars can ever achieve and start paying for the investment.  Once there is reasonable return on investment, industry will expand quickly.  Remotely controlling machines on Mars from Earth is tortuously slow with round trip communication delays ranging from eight to forty-four minutes and communications black outs lasting up to a month every two years.  The transportation to and from the rest of the Solar System from Mars is impeded by its atmosphere but from the moon transportation can be by low cost all electric means, achieving orbital velocity on the surface in the ambient vacuum.  The lunar gravity well is only 22.4% as deep as the gravity well on Mars in terms of the energy needed to achieve low orbit.  The only way Mars could compete with the ease of electric launch and [[Eddy Current Brake to Orbit#Landing on Luna|landing]] available on Luna is to lunaform Mars, shading it with large satellites until the atmosphere freezes out.  Material for such shades could come from Deimos, Phobos, or Luna.  The industry to colonize and lunaform Mars is easiest to start on Luna.  If industry were started on Mars, it would require people there from the start who would need to be supported initially by goods shipped from Earth.   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

At a public meeting of the Human Space Flight Review Committee in 2009 someone put up signs reading "MARS DIRECT COWARDS RETURN TO THE MOON",[http://thespacereview.com/article/1435/1 according to The Space Review].  This suggests that someone does not think that he has rational arguments to support his position and so resorts to insults or else that he thinks that political victory in getting support for one way trips to Mars is more important than logical arguments.  Well, it would be possible to colonize Mars with trips direct from Earth.  It would just be a more expensive way of moving human industry into space.  Over a trillion dollars for an expanding sef-sufficient colony is a reasonable expectation.  Mars One plans to land the first colonists on Mars in 2023.  If there is really a great deal of support for colonizing Mars starting in 2023 and Mars One gets the money to do it, then they will have shown that making the political decision was more important having economic arguments for one policy or another.  If instead they send colonists to their deaths by negligently failing to provide the necessities of life, charges for one of the lesser degrees of homicide might be in order for all of those responsible.  We can wait and see how they do.  While we are waiting we can work on developing the life support system model to test on Earth.   

At a public meeting of the Human Space Flight Review Committee in 2009 someone put up signs reading "MARS DIRECT COWARDS RETURN TO THE MOON",[http://thespacereview.com/article/1435/1 according to The Space Review].  This suggests that someone does not think that he has rational arguments to support his position and so resorts to insults or else that he thinks that political victory in getting support for one way trips to Mars is more important than logical arguments.  Well, it would be possible to colonize Mars with trips direct from Earth.  It would just be a more expensive way of moving human industry into space.  Over a trillion dollars for an expanding self-sufficient colony is a reasonable expectation.  Mars One plans to land the first colonists on Mars in 2023.  If there is really a great deal of support for colonizing Mars starting in 2023 and Mars One gets the money to do it, then they will have shown that making the political decision was more important having economic arguments for one policy or another.  If instead they send colonists to their deaths by negligently failing to provide the necessities of life, charges for one of the lesser degrees of homicide might be in order for all of those responsible.  We can wait and see how they do.  While we are waiting we can work on developing the life support system model to test on Earth.   

   

   

[[Category:Purposes]]

[[Category:Purposes]]

Instead of complaining about the difficult conditions of vacuum and temperature extremes on Luna, we should take advantage of them.  In this instance a probe is described that is to sit in one spot gathering solar electric energy during the day and move during the night.   

Instead of complaining about the difficult conditions of vacuum and temperature extremes on Luna, we should take advantage of them.  In this instance a probe is described that is to sit in one spot gathering solar electric energy during the day and move during the night.   

   

   

The thermal condition of Luna during local 354 hour night is not intractably difficult.  Insulation can be very effective in a vacuum, as it is for satellites in free space.  The feet of the robot probe would be the only parts to usually lose heat to lunar surface directly by conduction.  They can be made of materials resistant to cold temperatures.  Ordinary electrical operation of the probe should provide sufficient heat to maintain operating temperatures.  When local daytime approaches the probe should unpack and deploy an aluminum foil wall to block infrared radiation between a three meter diameter camp site the surrounding terrain.  Also it should deploy an umbrella on a 15 meter boom toward the sunrise to shade the campsite.  The umbrella includes solar cells to gather electricity.  Also it should deploy 15 meter booms at azimuths 120 degrees different from the sunrise in the northerly and southerly directions, which booms contain solar cells and balance the torque on the robot produced by the 15 meter umbrella boom.  As the sun moves through the lunar sky the umbrella boom is rotated to always block the sun.  The counter torque booms are rotated in the opposite direction to balance the torque on the probe.  The probe gathers electrical energy and uses it to electrolyze water and liquefy and store the resulting hydrogen and oxygen.  At sunset the probe stows the booms, gathers up and stows the aluminum foil wall using electricity from hydrogen/oxygen fuel cells.  It then moves about actively exploring Luna during the Lunar night.

The thermal condition of Luna during local 354 hour night is not intractably difficult.  Insulation can be very effective in a vacuum, as it is for satellites in free space.  The thermal situation of probe on the night-time surface of Luna is very similar to that of an orbiting satellite in the shadow of a planet.  The feet of the robot probe would be the only parts to usually lose heat to the lunar surface directly by conduction.  They can be made of materials resistant to cold temperatures.  Little heat will be lost through six long slender legs if a little care is taken to reduce this path of heat conduction.  Ordinary electrical operation of the probe should provide sufficient heat to maintain operating temperatures.  When local daytime approaches the probe should unpack and deploy a 160 centimeter high aluminum foil wall to block infrared radiation between a three meter diameter camp site and the surrounding terrain.  Also it should deploy a 4.3 meter diameter umbrella on a 15 meter boom toward the sunrise to shade the campsite.  The umbrella is a flat disk with solar cells on the sunward side to gather electricity and shiny aluminum on the underside.  Also the probe should deploy counter weights on booms held away from the sunrise on the north and south sides of the probe.  The counter weights are baskets of regolith to balance the torque on the robot produced by the 15 meter umbrella boom.  The counter weights should hang outside the camp site wall.  As the sun moves through the lunar sky the umbrella boom is rotated to always block the sun.  The counter weight booms are rotated from the sunset direction to the sunrise direction to balance the torque on the probe produced by the umbrella boom.  As the umbrella boom is rotated, the angle of the umbrella to the boom that holds it is tilted so that, from the viewpoint of the probe, the shiny under side of the umbrella reflects the cold black sky.  The probe gathers electrical energy during the day and uses it to electrolyze water and liquefy and store the resulting hydrogen and oxygen.  At sunset the probe stows the umbrella boom, gathers up and stows the aluminum foil wall using electricity from hydrogen/oxygen fuel cells.  It then moves about actively exploring Luna during the Lunar night.

   

   

This probe would be optimized moving about during the night and it could carry out observations and other activities from its stationary position during the day.  The probe should be designed to be active for several years.  Since leg bearings can be covered by a gas tight envelope to maintain gas pressure and prevent lubrication evaporation and wheel bearings cannot be so covered, legs might be used instead of wheels as a means of locomotion.   

This probe would be optimized for making observations and moving about during the night.  It would carry out observations and other activities from its stationary position during the day.  The probe should be designed to be active for several years.  Leg bearings can be covered by a gas tight accordion type envelope to maintain a slight gas pressure to prevent evaporation of lubricant. Wheel bearings cannot be so covered, so legs might be used instead of wheels as a means of locomotion.   

   

   

[[Category:Robots]]

[[Category:Robots]]