Helium-3: The secret “mining war” in space

We have all heard of the arms race, the space race, and even the peace race.

But there is a race that has completely escaped the public eye: who will be the first to mine helium-3 in significant quantities in space in an attempt to develop nuclear fusion reactors that do not produce dangerous nuclear waste and other pollutants.

“Space holds practically unlimited amounts of energy and raw materials, from helium-3 fuel on the moon for clean fusion reactors to heavy metals and volatile gases from asteroids that can be extracted for use on Earth and in space,” says former CIA space analyst Tim Chrisman.

“China will almost certainly use whatever resources it can acquire to the detriment of its adversaries, competitors and bystanders alike,” Chrisman told the Jerusalem Post in an interview.

Chrisman also served in Army Intelligence and is a co-founder of the Foundation for the Future, a science education and public works advocacy group dedicated to creating infrastructure for living and working in space.

Beijing is charging for potential revolutions in space power generation and space materials mining and could leave the US behind, Chrisman said.

China has an upfront advantage because its military and economic components are practically inextricably linked.

America faces a greater challenge in gathering and uniting various aspects of national power to pursue a single challenging long-term mission.

“Getting there first can be more like launching the first satellite – like the space races in Russia and the US,” he said of the helium-3 race.

“That would be a great political and diplomatic victory. Much depends on how this can be exploited at the backend, whether it can be used quickly for electricity and energy or whether it can be reliably brought back to earth en masse. It opens up opportunities for dramatic change. “

Scientists say two fully loaded space shuttle holds of helium-3 – about 40 tons of the gas – could provide the United States with electricity for a year at current energy levels.

Professor Ouyang Ziyuan, the chief scientist of China’s lunar research program, recently said the moon is “so rich” in helium-3 that it “could meet humanity’s energy needs for at least about 10,000 years.”

NASA is working on lunar bases that can travel on wheels or even on legs to increase landing zone safety, provide equipment redundancy, and improve the chances of important discoveries. (Source: Courtesy of NASA.)

Several large institutions in China are currently studying rocks collected from the Moon by the Chang’e 5 mission for research purposes that include evaluating the material as a potential source of fusion energy.

The mission delivered 3.82 lbs. (1.73 kilograms) lunar material to Earth in December. An initial batch of 31 samples totaling 0.616 ounces (17.4764 grams), including fine grains, basalt fragments, and glasses, was distributed to 13 Chinese institutions in July, Space.com reported.

“The main aim of the study is to determine the helium-3 content in the lunar soil, the extraction parameters of helium-3, which indicate at what temperature we can extract the helium and how helium-3 is bound to the moon soil”, Huang Zhixin, a researcher in the science and technology department of the Beijing Urangeology Research Institute, told CCTV in late August.

“We will conduct a systematic study on these aspects.”

Solar System Resources has a contract to supply US Nuclear Corp. with 500 kilograms of helium-3 mined from the moon. signed in 2028-2032, the report says.

In contrast to the earth, which is protected by its magnetic field, the moon was bombarded with large amounts of helium-3 by solar winds. That makes it up to 100 times more common on the moon than on earth.

Fusion reactor technology itself has faced various obstacles for decades, but some argue that a significant supply of Helium-3 could be the game changer required.

“An even bigger potential game changer could be space-based solar energy,” he added.

“This has more potential in the short term – and even if it were a less significant diplomatic victory, it would be much more of a political blow in the gut for the people of both countries. It wouldn’t just be signals from space, but wireless energy available around the clock.

“It would be a solar power plant, a solar park with solar panels that are brought into space. Instead of the [limited] Day and night cycle on the floor you have constant sunlight that delivers energy via a microwave or laser link to the floor. “

China is well on its way to having a new megawatt-scale space-based solar power plant operational by 2030, with key tests set to take place in 2022, Chrisman said, adding that it made space expansion a real dedicated national mission and it made substantial funds available.

“This is not just about the Biden administration. It’s in the entire political apparatus – it almost feels like it is [commercial potential and job creation in space] is 100 years away, ”while the former CIA analyst argued that it is only a few years or less than a decade away.

Regarding other useful materials, geologists, as well as emerging companies like US-based Planetary Resources, a pioneering company in the space mining industry, believe that asteroids are filled with iron ore, nickel, and precious metals in much higher concentrations than they are on Earth, what has a market value in the trillions of dollars.

The difficulty, Chrisman said, is that asteroids are smaller and a more difficult target to land on. They rotate often, may not be spherical, and space programs may not be able to map what the surface looks like before a launch, which affects the safety of spaceships, vehicles, or astronauts.

The Trump administration took an active interest in space, announced that America would return astronauts to the moon by 2024, and formed the Space Force as the newest branch of the US military.

It also proposed a global legal framework for mining on the moon, called the Artemis Agreement, which encourages citizens to mine Earth’s natural satellite and other celestial bodies for commercial purposes.

The directive classified space as a “legally and physically unique domain of human activity” rather than a “global commons” and paved the way for the moon to be dismantled without any international treaty.

Led by the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Artemis Agreements were signed by Australia, Canada, England, Japan, Luxembourg, Italy and the United Emirates.

NASA plans to build a permanent lunar orbiting base called the Gateway, similar to the ISS. From there, the agency hopes to build a base on the lunar surface to mine the resources needed to fly the first astronauts to Mars.

China, which made history in 2019 by becoming the first country to land a probe on the other side of the moon, took a different approach. Since the Artemis Agreement was announced, Beijing has approached Russia to jointly set up a lunar research base.

President Xi Jinping also got China to hoist its flag on the moon, which happened in December 2020, more than 50 years after the US hit the lunar surface.

Sources: The Jerusalem Post, Space.com, Mining.com, I2M