The New Oil

As a kid I watched an Apollo mission land in the ocean. I wondered why are we so interested in going to the moon. We can easily see it from a telescope, what do we hope to find. I pondered that my whole life till now. Like Columbus seeking a new passage to India but finding a whole new continent, exploration is always financed for the purpose of trade. Those that accomplish it may do it for a noble principle of knowledge, science what have you. However it is driven by those with money seeking to control more money and more power through discovery. The same is why we spent billions on the Apollo missions to find some kind of resource on the moon that could be used. The moon presents a unique opportunity in that only a few countries can reach it. Which one can reach it first and mine its resource will command that commerce for a very long time. The Apollo missions gave us what we needed but we did not have quite the tech to understand what the potential fully was. So Apollo was cancelled when we had enough to study. This perplexed NASA people as they thought we were going to the moon for science, wrong. Most still dont understand why the missions were canceled at the end. It was blamed on Vietnam and other things but the reality is the people financing it already had what they were looking for. It was time to examine their finds and see what can be made of it.

Now we see China, Russia are going to the moon in a big hurry. Suddenly our own government has canceled numerous NASA projects in order to race to the moon again but why? It is naive to think it is for science or lofty reasons like pride. The real reason is that they finally figured out something that is there of great importance. So much so that a former Apollo astronaut and expert geologist as well as his scientist fusion partner have teamed to form a company to harvest what they discovered there.

The race is on for a new energy source. The oil companies have suppressed electric cars for decades in attempt to stay in the oil game. But they know that the time is nearing they cannot hold these technologies back anymore. Especially when we have electric cars today that can run on battery twice as long as an economy gas car, require little maintenance, pollution free, faster in response than a gas car, and only takes an hour to recharge on house current. Even plastics made from oil is being challenged as farmers have developed plastic from corn that is totally biodegradable. The oil industry knows that there is still 120 trillion dollars of oil left in the earth, but is not endless. The US seized control of the second largest supply, Iraq to sell to the largest customer of oil right now, China. However the problem is that eventually oil will run out, there are too many countries that can produce it in competition, and China and Russia are looking towards harvesting a new source that will replace it. So the US must make what it can off the oil but grasp the new energy source before the other countries do.

The new oil of the 21st century I dub the new oil is called Helium3. Right now fusion is the bright future of energy from Hydrogen. However hydrogen releases too many neutrons that tend to destroy the reactor in no time. However helium3 is chemically the same as hydrogen but releases few neutrons so a reactor can last a very long time. The problem is helium3 is very rare on earth. Where it comes it from is the sun. The sun sends solar winds of helium3 in abundance but our atmosphere shields us from it. However lucky for us the moon has no atmosphere and there are many years of collection of helium3 all over it. Millions of tons of helium3 are in abundance there. It is estimated that one metric ton of helium3 can power a large city for a year easily and there are millions of tons of it on the moon. This means safe, enivronmentally clean energy that is powerful, quite literally the new oil. We know how to make it work and power everything with it already. It is must a matter of getting it.

It is estimated it would cost 15 billion dollars a year to harvest helium3 from the moon. However the current value of helium3 is 1 billion dollars per ton. It is the most valuable substance currently by far. Now you know why three major powers of this planet are in a race to mine it. It means economic domination of the world for years to come and no other oil producing country can get to it. Oil becomes a useless lubricant eventually.

There is a contest with NASA right now for anyone to think of a space elevator to move material up and down into space from our atmosphere. The purpose obviously is to find a way to bring helium3 down from orbit without the nasty re-entry methods we use now. Traveling to and from the moon and transport has already been worked out. But what about living on the moon to have workers harvest it? Right now NASA has an underwater home in the Gulf of Mexico where scientist live for extended periods of time and take outside walks in makeshift suits to simulate the moon. They build things and examine the difficulties of building a moon base. This simulation is done in 60 foot of water with waternauts wearing heavy weights to simluate the 1/6 gravity of the moon.

How about water, food, supplies for people to survive on a moon base? A scientist using simulated moon dust, dirt made exactly like the moon's, was able to heat it to 800 degrees in a special device and extract Water! Moon dust is rich in oxygen so you have an ample supply of rocket fuel, air, water right there. There is also nitrogen in it so growing plants and food is easy. Helium3 is the energy source sought so you have plenty of fuel for power. The moon actually has more things you need to survive there than an earth desert. So living there can be totally self sufficient.

The US, Russia and China expect to all be on the moon by 2020. The race is on for helium3 the new oil. Who will dominate the new energy source for the 21st century?