On Wednesday, China launched its first lunar probe, hot on the heels of Japan and slightly ahead of India. In a month that marked the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the first space race, with the Soviet satellite, Sputnik, it looks as if we're in for another. The question is why. . . .
I first heard about helium-3 (He-3) from the geologist Harrison "Jack" Schmitt, the only scientist among the 12 Americans who walked on the moon between 1969 and 1972, and a tireless campaigner for a US return. He understood a 21st-century programme would never happen without an economic rationale, and he hoped that He-3, which is deposited on the surface by the solar wind, might provide one. If the necessary fusion technology could be made to work, he said, this compound would be a source of clean energy for Earth.
Against Schmitt's enthusiasm were the facts that, a) no one had made the technology work, b) the US had to get up there first, and c) mining He-3 would involve ripping up the lunar surface to a depth of one metre. So the idea of mining moon dust has gained little support in the US. Now it seems China might be with Jack on this one - and where they go, everyone else will try to follow.
Whether it turns out to be He-3, solar energy, or some as yet unknown technology that draws humanity back to the moon, there's an irony here. In 1968, Apollo 8 brought back the first shimmering image of an "Earthrise" as seen from the moon. Four years later, Apollo 17 came home with the famous whole Earth picture. These new views of our fragile, heartbreakingly isolated planet are often credited with having helped to kickstart the environmental movement - even with having changed the way we see ourselves as a species.
At present, nations are forbidden under international treaty from making territorial claims to the moon, but the same has hitherto been true of Antarctica, of which the UK government is trying to claim a chunk. Earth's sister has played a role in teaching us to value our environment: how extraordinary to think that the next giant leap for the environmental movement might be a campaign to stop state-sponsored mining companies chomping her up in glorious privacy, a quarter of a million miles from our ravaged home.
Posted by: Mike ||
10/29/2007 15:49 ||
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#1
There's a couple of American flags planted with pictures. It has been claimed.
#4
The Indian Lunar probe (due for launch early next year) includes an impactor which will slam into the surface and throw up dust for examination by the orbiting probe's onboard instruments.
Everybody wants Helium-3
Posted by: john frum ||
10/29/2007 17:20 Comments ||
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#5
Wel-l-l, as remarked long ago, iff a space rock doesn't shatter and destroy the moon come 2030 [APOPHIS 2029], will SPOCK'S "INADEQUATE [MINE]SAFETY PRECAUTIONS", ala STAR TREK: THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY + THE TIME MACHINE [remake]??? D *** NGED 1960's TEXAS-SIZED ASTEROIDS".
#6
I'm just waiting for the advertisers to pitch in, as in The Man Who Sold the Moon.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
10/29/2007 20:04 Comments ||
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#7
To make a go of dust mining on the Moon, you need to be able to not only gather up the dust, but cook it to release the tiny amount of He3 in it (.01ppm).
This means you need a nuclear furnace.
Initially, this is almost simple enough to be done by robots. That is, a probe with a furnace touches down on a big patch of dust, then puts out a mechanical arm with a rotating sweep on the end, that brushes dust onto a conveyor belt inside the arm. The belt takes the dust to the furnace, which cooks it to release the Helium, which is then compressed in a gas cylinder. Most of the Helium would be He2, not He3, but separation of the two gases will need to be done on Earth.
Then, when the cylinder is full, the upper half of the probe launches, leaving the furnace behind, and takes the cylinder up to an orbital vessel.
#1
Interestingly enough, the Indian Air Force seems satisfied with the F/A-18 and allowed it into competition for the 126+ plane order the IAF is making.
And the Indian also fly the Su-30 Flanker. And their version is superior to the Chinese or Indonesian ones (with Indian, French, and Israeli avionics).
The IAF really likes the AESA radar and the munitions load the F-18 can bring to bear.
Posted by: john frum ||
10/29/2007 17:34 Comments ||
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#2
Our Active Electronically Scanned Array Radar or the Russian AESA Radar john?
Posted by: Red Dawg ||
10/29/2007 17:42 Comments ||
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#3
Does Russia have a real AESA radar yet?
The F/A-18 one.
I think the manufacturer is working on an "export grade" version that could be sold to India.
Posted by: john frum ||
10/29/2007 17:47 Comments ||
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#4
The Indians may want to 'MKIize' their F/A-18 if purchased, with Israeli and French and local Indian content (electronic warfare kit, computers etc).
Posted by: john frum ||
10/29/2007 17:50 Comments ||
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#5
#3 Does Russia have a real AESA radar yet?
John here's a list from WIKI. List of AESA radars, scroll down several other interesting arrays [Passive electronically scanned array]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`
John: WIKI is one thang.. "secrete Intel" is another....
#3 Does Russia have a real AESA radar yet?
Yes they do john,
it's called the AESA-MEDVEDSKI-RUSLO Radar invented by the People's ÀªÚÎËÒÑÄ Engineers way back when Lenin's Uncle waz teaching the Wright Brothers how to fly.
/yep! ~:)
Posted by: Red Dawg ||
10/29/2007 19:00 Comments ||
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#6
This may be a moot argument. I have a strong feeling that the entire air war paradigm is about to radically change, with the US introducing drone combat aircraft. This may imply the following:
1) First line drone aircraft need stealth far less than large numbers. Stealth would remain, but only for mission critical manned strike aircraft.
2) Most manned aircraft would be in the 2nd echelon, to attack any enemy drone aircraft that made it through the drone 1st echelon. Again, their air to air missiles would be far more important than the aircraft, as far as speed, accuracy, maneuverability, etc. Thus it is far more important that they carry a lot.
3) Drone aircraft would be subdivided into multi use and expendable. Multi use would be high performance, expensive and deadly. Expendable would be as cheap as a car, and mass produced, single mission aircraft. Between the two, no enemy non-stealthy manned aircraft would have a chance.
Porter Wagoner, a country singer who mixed rhinestone suits, a towering pompadour and cornball jokes with direct, simple songs over a career best known for his partnership with Dolly Parton, died last night in Nashville. He was 80.
Mr. Wagoner riled country traditionalists in 1979 by inviting James Brown, the godfather of soul, to the Opry. Though Mr. Brown performed the country standards Your Cheatin Heart and Tennessee Waltz, which Mr. Wagoner had taught him, his rendition of his own Papas Got a Brand New Bag generated hate mail.
Mr. Wagoner had several long periods when he did not record or tour. He sometimes explained that there was little good material available. The lyrics in at least two of his songs came from spending time in a Nashville mental hospital. One, Committed to Parkview, was written by Johnny Cash about a Nashville institution in which both men had stayed. It is part of an album Mr. Wagoner released last year, The Rubber Room: The Haunting Poetic Songs of Porter Wagoner, 1966-1967.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
I first heard about helium-3 (He-3) from the geologist Harrison "Jack" Schmitt, the only scientist among the 12 Americans who walked on the moon between 1969 and 1972, and a tireless campaigner for a US return. He understood a 21st-century programme would never happen without an economic rationale, and he hoped that He-3, which is deposited on the surface by the solar wind, might provide one. If the necessary fusion technology could be made to work, he said, this compound would be a source of clean energy for Earth.
