The quest to find a multi-billion dollar nuclear fuel on the moon

The space program of India wants to go where no nation has gone before – on the south side of the moon. And once there, he will study the potential of extracting a source of nuclear energy without waste worth billions of dollars.

The national equivalent of NASA will launch a robot in October to explore the virgin territory on the lunar surface and analyze the crust samples for water and helium-3 signs. This isotope is limited on Earth and yet so abundant on the Moon that it could theoretically meet global energy demands for 250 years when it is exploited.

"Countries that have the ability to bring this source from the moon to Earth will dictate the process," said K. Sivan, president of the Indian Space Research Organization. "I do not want to be part of them, I want to lead them."

The mission would consolidate India's place among the fleet of explorers Race to the moon, Mars and beyond for scientific, commercial or military gains. The governments of the United States, China, India, Japan and Russia are competing with startups and billionaires Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson to launch satellites, robotic undercarriages, astronauts and tourists in the cosmos.

The Rover Landing is a milestone in a planned series for ISRO that includes the launching of a space station and, potentially, an Indian crew on the moon. The government has not yet set a timetable.

"We are ready and waiting," said Sivan, an aeronautical engineer who joined ISRO in 1982. "We have equipped ourselves to take on this particular program."

China is the Only country to put a lander and a rover on the moon this century with its mission Chang & # 39; e 3 in 2013. The nation plans to return later this year by sending a probe to the other unexplored side.

In the United States, President Donald Trump signed a directive asking astronauts to return to the moon, and $ 19 billion proposed by NASA budget this fiscal year calls to launch a lunar orbiter in the early 2020s.

The estimate of the ISRO The budget is less than a tenth of that amount – about $ 1.7 billion – but the accomplishment of cheap feats has been a hallmark of the agency since the 1960s. The next mission cost about $ 125 million, less than a quarter of Evan Spiegel, co-founder of Snap Inc., last year, the highest compensation for an officer of a publicly traded company, according to the Bloomberg Pay index.

It will not be the first lunar mission in India. The Chandrayaan-1 ship, launched in October 2008, completed more than 3,400 orbits and ejected a probe discovered water molecules in the surface for the first time.

The upcoming launch of Chandrayaan-2 includes an orbiter, a lander and a rectangular rover. The six-wheeled vehicle, powered by solar energy, will collect information for at least 14 days and cover an area of ​​400 meters radius.

The rover will send images to the LG, and the LG will forward them to ISRO for analysis.

However, one of the main goals is to look for helium-3 deposits. The solar winds bombarded the moon with huge amounts of helium-3 because it's not protected by a magnetic field like Earth's east.

The presence of helium-3 was confirmed in moon samples returned by the Apollo Missions, and Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison Schmitt, a geologist who walked on the moon in December 1972, is a strong advocate of the extraction of helium-3.

"It is thought that this isotope could provide safer nuclear energy in a fusion reactor because it is not radioactive and would not produce hazardous waste," European Space Agency said.

It is estimated that 1 million metric tons of helium-3 are incorporated into the Moon, but only about a quarter of it could be brought back to Earth. Gerald Kulcinski, director of the Fusion Technology Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and former member of the NASA Advisory Board.

It's still enough to meet the world's current energy demands for at least two and perhaps up to five centuries, Kulcinski said. He estimated the value of helium-3 at about $ 5 billion a tonne, which means that 250,000 tonnes would represent trillions of dollars.

To be sure, there are many obstacles to overcome before the equipment can be used – including the logistics of collecting and delivering to Earth and building fusion power plants to convert the material into energy. These costs would be stratospheric.

"If this can be cracked, India should be part of this effort," said Lydia Powell, who heads the Center for Resources Management of the Observer Research Foundation think tank based in New Delhi. "If the cost makes sense, it will become a game changer, no doubt about it."

Moreover, it will not be easy to mine the moon. Only the United States and Luxembourg have passed legislation allowing business entities to keep what they have extracted from space, said David Todd, space content manager at Northampton, England. Seradata Ltd. There is no international treaty on the issue.

"Eventually, it will be like fishing in the sea in international waters," Todd said. "While a nation-state can not hold international waters, fish becomes the property of its fishermen once fished."

The Indian government is responding to the influx of business ventures into the air by drafting legislation to regulate satellite launches, company registrations and liability, said GV Anand Bhushan, an associate of Chennai at the law firm Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co. This does not cover the exploitation of the moon.

Yet the nation's only astronaut is not fully on board with the transformation of the moon into a place of business.

Rakesh Sharma, who spent nearly eight days aboard a Russian spacecraft in 1984, said nations and private companies should work together to develop human settlements elsewhere as the Earth lacks resources and risks disasters like asteroids.

"You can not go to the moon and draw boundaries," said Sharma. "I want India to show that we are able to use space technology for the good of people."

– With the help of Debjit Chakraborty