Reply To: NIMBY FUD
The Focus Fusion Society › Forums › Dense Plasma Focus (DPF) Science and Applications › World running out of helium – so make some with a DPF › Reply To: NIMBY FUD
zapkittydelt0r wrote: The moom has helium in the parts per *billion* range.
Nope, that’s helium -3.
In lunar regolith helium-4 is measured in ppm. Depending on the figures you use there might be over 450 million tons of helium available for mining on the moon.
Aneutronic fusion would enable us to do just that.
That would solve our (deliberately engineered) helium shortage for about forever. And with pB11 aneutronic fusion we wouldn’t care about how much of the total bulk of He was helium-3… although I’m quite sure that sundry labs and industries would happily pay to separate some of that 3He out for various purposes.
In comparison to the lunar regolith, Jupiter’s outer atmosphere would be a mother lode of helium if you can get to it and scoop ii out of the atmosphere… and we will definitely need fusion-powered ships for that 🙂