Mining helium-3 on the Moon and then returning it to Earth ultimately seems more expensive than using the resources on the Moon directly. For instance, by placing quatum computers there, or fusion reactors there, or whatever.
Would be interesting to see the economics of the various hypothetical business models.
perihelions•1h ago
The direct alternative is to simply make more of it in nuclear fission reactors. (WaPo fails to even mention the option?!) It scales well, as would be needed for scaling up nuclear fusion power.
The current method is neutron capture of deuterium, but you'd get much larger amounts, fast, using lithium; particularly if it's isotopically enriched. Either way you get radioactive tritium, which decays to helium-3 over a 14-year half-life. The tritium is what fusion reactors want.
It's regrettable we've let China establish a world monopoly over lithium enrichment. This is yet another thing they could have a large starting advantage on, with their immediate access to lithium-6 at scale.
nwah1•1h ago
Would be interesting to see the economics of the various hypothetical business models.
perihelions•1h ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breeding_blanket#Tritium_breed...
The current method is neutron capture of deuterium, but you'd get much larger amounts, fast, using lithium; particularly if it's isotopically enriched. Either way you get radioactive tritium, which decays to helium-3 over a 14-year half-life. The tritium is what fusion reactors want.
It's regrettable we've let China establish a world monopoly over lithium enrichment. This is yet another thing they could have a large starting advantage on, with their immediate access to lithium-6 at scale.