I think you could mine helium 3 on the moon. There financial benefits to setting up a fully functional base that can mine its fuel and energy for launches. Launching a mission from the moon is way easier than from earth.
Correct me if I'm wrong but as far as Space capabilities to its US and Russia.... And everyone else a distant third....Can we do with this anybody but Russia?
Literally anybody else.
Correct me if I'm wrong but as far as Space capabilities to its US and Russia.... And everyone else a distant third.
Considering the state of affairs with Russia why is this even being discussed?
He3 is actually worthless until you can create a fusion reaction that actually runs on that stuff. The catch here is that we can't even do far easier deuterium/tritium fusion properly...
No, the reason for Lunar base/station is that it allows for long-term Moon studies and possibly makes a propellant depot a bit easier (ideally, you can get propellant from the Moon).
China's catching up quick but the US has a law that prohibits co-operation with China in space matters. Apparently.
ESA suffers from smallish budget and limited scope of operations and planning, it seems.
I thought the real moon boon (heh) as far as interplanetary travel goes is lunar water ice. Fuel and water being the most expensive cargo by weight, if they could use polar and crater ice for drinking water and fuel production it would drastically reduce the costs.
Essentially, run flights to the lunar station with it's own water and fuel source, and then launch interplanetary flights from there.
China's catching up quick but the US has a law that prohibits co-operation with China in space matters. Apparently.
ESA suffers from smallish budget and limited scope of operations and planning, it seems.
China's catching up quick but the US has a law that prohibits co-operation with China in space matters. Apparently.
ESA suffers from smallish budget and limited scope of operations and planning, it seems.
He3 is actually worthless until you can create a fusion reaction that actually runs on that stuff. The catch here is that we can't even do far easier deuterium/tritium fusion properly...
No, the reason for Lunar base/station is that it allows for long-term Moon studies and possibly makes a propellant depot a bit easier (ideally, you can get propellant from the Moon).