At 03:22 PM 12/7/2006, Dr. Core wrote:
The article speculates the value of Moon colonization to be Helium-3.
(no, the article didn't mention Minovsky by name) According to the
article, Earth only holds a few hundred pounds of He-3, but the Moon
holds a reserve of 1-5 million tons, enough to provide all of humanity
energy demands for "thousands of years".
Really? Wouldn't that first require a functioning fusion reactor?
Last I heard, the optimistic projections put a reactor on the table
by 2050 (or somewhere thereabouts). I can't see helium being very
useful until then, so what do we do in the meantime?
But I should go on record saying that many statements in the article
are factually wrong, mainly in the area of fusion power generation.
That puts doubt into other claims made by the article. Hey, I said
it's interesting, I didn't say it's right.
Heh.
NASA's mission is to maintain US leadership position in global
competition. Getting rid of competition is putting the carriage
before the horse. And it's the same for Russia, Japan, China, India,
Europe etc. Space programs are put in place to achieve competitive
advantage. Putting aside competition will remove the biggest
motivation for space exploration.
Apart from bragging rights, I'm still spotty on the whole payoff
angle. A competitive edge is great, but to what does the edge
pertain? Mining? Energy? Strategy? What?
--------------------------------------------------
The Gundam Mailing List MK-II [email protected]
Archives: http://www.gundam.com/gml
Help: Email [EMAIL PROTECTED] with this in
the BODY: help list
