Nikolai Sevastyanov, head of Russia's giant Energia Space Corporation, has unveiled plans to build a permanent base on the Moon within a decade.

"We are planning to build a permanent base on the moon by 2015, and by 2020 we can begin the industrial-scale delivery ... of the rare isotope helium 3, which the Moon has in abundace"

We intend to strip mine the Moon and liquify the masses of Helium 3, that abounds around the Sea of Tranquility, and ship it back to Earth.

One ton of liquid helium, will generate as much energy as 14 million tons of oil. And is worth trillions of Dollars

Mr Sevastyanov stated "The Earth will have unlimited energy for at least a thousand years. Our present known reserves of hydrocarbons, used at our present rate will only last between 50 and 100 years"

He told an academic conference that Moscow is keen to institute regular cargo flights of helium 3 back to Earth as soon as possible.

Thought***
Now that is very interesting, because NASA, in its 'Return to the Moon' is gearing up to do exactly the same thing, mine for Helium 3, a gas which allows nuclear fusion to be achieved with relative ease.
Looks like they will both have competition from China, who has recently stated that they to, intend to set up a base upon the Moon.

http://www.charm.net/~jriley/energy/StudentMalapert.html
and
The Independent (a UK Newspaper)

PS Wish Uncle Al was around, he would sort this out.

That's great. Welcome news amid the doom and gloom!

Also, from Space.com:

"In contrast [to deuterium and tritium ], helium 3 fusion would produce little residual radioactivity..."You could safely build a helium 3 plant in the middle of a bigcity," Kulcinski said.

"Researchers and space enthusiasts see helium-3 as the perfect fuel source...Helium 3 fusion is also ideal for poweringspacecraft and interstellar travel. While offering the high performancepower of fusion -- "a classic Buck Rogers propulsion system" -- helium3 rockets would require less radioactive shielding, lightening the load,said Robert Frisbee, an advanced propulsion engineer at NASA's Jet PropulsionLaboratory in Pasadena California."

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/helium3_000630.html

Wouldn't you think that a cooperative effort would be better though?
_________

A very interesting pdf: "The Significance of Helium 3 Fusion"

http://fti.neep.wisc.edu/neep533/FALL2001/lecture25.pdf

Redewenur wrote:

"Wouldn't you think that a cooperative effort would be better though?"

Aren't we always told competition is good?

Competition is a healthy stimulus, within reason, but it often simply makes a virtue of necessity; it's essentially 'game playing'. There are times when that stimulus should be superfluous, particularly where critical need is identified. When surgeons are conducting a life saving operation, they don't play competitive games, they focus on efficient cooperation. It's time that cooperation was acknowledged as the key to solving the threats to life on Earth.

Sorry Rede. I was actually joking. We hear so much from the rightwing economists about competition. It would certainly make sense to pool resources and expenses in this case. And in many other cases.

"Sorry Rede. I was actually joking."

By the time I'd typed that, it dawned on me that you was joking - I sometimes get a little too earnest about these things.

[quote=redewenur

....I sometimes get a little too earnest about these things. [/quote]

Hehe you dont need to apologise, your being earnest shows that you are 101% in favour of Moon colonisation.

So many people today scoff at the suggestion, saying it'll never happen, a waste of money,no one will ever live there etc.etc.

Like yourself, I'm optimistic about the total Space scene, just hope I will still be around to see it.

So I dream, occasionally going out side to watch the 15 manned Soyez, or ISS flying overhead glinting in the Sun, in real time.

http://www.n2yo.com/ ..its free.

Anybody know how they obtained the info, to show the rifts, valleys, and cracks in the Ocean floors in such great detail?

Tnx redenuwer for the Helium 3 url's.

--------------------
"You will find a real Human beings - on the Moon soon"
......Mike Kremer.
.

One may safely conclude from this that all of the major players on the planet think there is a huge payoff in fusion.

What isn't being discussed though is the following.

After the tax payers cover the cost of the entire space program ... which private corporate interests will benefit.

Time to start thinking about it now.

Mike asked:

"Anybody know how they obtained the info, to show the rifts, valleys, and cracks in the Ocean floors in such great detail?"

I'm not sure but I have an atlas from 1986 that shows the rifts, valleys and cracks in the same detail. So the onfo has been around for a while, presumably obtained by radar pinging off the bottom. But what I can't understand is that if they've had the technology so long why don't all atlases have the same detail? And why can I not find a globe with that detail? That'd be really useful. You could see how and where the continents have moved at a glance.

Much of the detail was collected for military and commercial purposes.

Good point Morgan, good point.

Now let me see,....in which underwater chasm are those Nuclear subs likely to be lurking?

--------------------
"You will never find a real Human being - even in a mirror." .....Mike Kremer.
.

The ones not on the map. <g>

Dan wrote:

"Much of the detail was collected for military and commercial purposes."

Is that why it's so hard to find these days? My atlas must have slipped through the system before they got organised!

May 1st (Labour Day) Moscow.

Mankind's second race for the moon took on a distinctly Cold War feel yesterday when the Russian space agency accused its old rival Nasa of rejecting a proposal for joint lunar exploration.

Russia accused USA NASA today, of wanting to mine the Moon for Helium-3 all by themselves.

The claim comes amid suspicion in Moscow that the United States is seeking to deny Russia access to an isotope in abundance on
the Moon's surface that could replace fossil fuels and even end the threat of global warming.
While Nasa has lobbied for support from Britain and the European Space Agency, Russia claims its offers have been rebuffed.
Nasa announced in December that it was planning to build an International base camp, on the Moon, permanently staffing it by 2024.

However "Energia the Russian Co" revealed an even more ambitious programme last August, saying it would build a permanent Moon base by 2015.

While the Americans have been dismissive on the subject, Russia openly says the main purpose of its lunar programme is the industrial extraction of helium-3
Yesterday Anatoly Perminov, the head of Russia's Federal Space Agency Roscosmos, said: "We are ready to co-operate but for some reason the United States has announced that it will carry out the programme itself. Strange as it is, the United States is short of experts to implement the programme."
Russia further alleges that President Bush has moved helium-3 experts into key positions on Nasa's advisory council.

The plot, says Erik Galimov, an academic with the Russian Academy of Sciences, would "enable the US to establish its control of the energy market 20 years from now and put the rest of the world on its knees as hydrocarbons run out."

Many countries are taking Helium-3 very seriously. Germany, India and China, will all launch a lunar probe to research extraction techniques this September, are all studying ways to mine the isotope.
"Whoever conquers the moon first will be the first to benefit," said Ouyang Ziyuan, the chief scientist of China's lunar programme.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6607809.stm

And elswhere
***This could get future serious?
Wonder whom is going to allie themselves with who?

'"Whoever conquers the moon first will be the first to benefit," said Ouyang Ziyuan, the chief scientist of China's lunar programme.'

In the last topic on this subject we spoke of the need for cooperation. What a dark and nasty world this new age threatens to be! Greed, political one-upmanship, power and dominance at all costs. Has nothing changed? Is this what we, the people, really want? Is this where our 'superior' culture leads us, with all its intellectual talk, its philosophising and its religion?

Surely Russia will share with humankind its newfound treasures...
As will China... no not they either.. the U.S.?.. negative. Ah the pissing contest is alive and well.
Sincerely

I believe the U.S. has not taken claim to own Antartica though they reserve the right to do so. What kind of bickering will occur over land-ownership on the moon? Will we have China/Russia vs. Europe vs. Japan/U.S.A.. etc.. Can the U.S. enforceabley claim ownership of the moon because they were the first ones there? Hopefully the search for Helium 3 will be a cooperative global effort and not another cold war. BTW aren't we a long way off from actually shipping tons of Helium 3 back to earth?

Far be it from me to be the proverbial "Wet Blanket", but check this out -

http://english.pravda.ru/science/earth/19-01-2007/86582-helium_moon-0


On this site you can find dome of the most bizarre and hilarious stories anywhere. The Russkie Mind-set is really something else.

Well I cant say much for the Czech translator. He reads:-
"Academician Evgeny Velikhov, president of the Kurchatov Institute, a Russian research center, shares the viewpoint: “We need to learn how to burn helium before we start bringing it down to Earth. We dont have to go to the Moon for doing so.???

He writes, Helium instead of Helium 3.
Yes we got plenty of Helium here on Earth , but NO Helium 3 exists here.
It gets destroyed within our atmosphere. But there is plenty on the Moon.
In any case whether we mine the Moon for helium 3 or not.
We are all going to the Moon, whether theres agreement or not. That is - China, Russia, US and Europe.
Its a valuable piece of property for us Earthlings to rape and pillage.
An excellent base that will be used to replace the hundreds of communication Satellites, now orbiting the Earth.
As well as a possible jump off point enroute for Mars.

I thought Helium 3 exists in many nuclear weapons here on Earth.

Mitt, it seems that there's not quite none, but nearly:

"Nearly all of the world's helium supply is found within a 250-mile radius of Amarillo, Texas (the Helium Capital of the World). A byproduct of billions of years of decay, helium is distilled from natural gas that has accumulated in the presence of radioactive uranium and thorium deposits. If it's not extracted during the natural gas refining process, helium simply soars off when the gas is burned, unrecoverable."

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.08/helium.html

My old Atlas shows Antartica as sliced up like pieces of cake.
Showing -Australia, Norway, Britain, France, USA, Russia, as having large slices.
But I believe any country can set up a 'permanent scientific' base, if they wish?

Regarding latest Chinese mission to the Moon

China plans to send an unmanned ship to orbit the moon this year

An unmanned mission to land on the moon is next
A manned lunar voyage is planned for some time after 2017

Scientists in Shanghai are developing a nuclear-powered lunar rover for the country's first unmanned mission to the moon in 2012.
The six-wheeled vehicle has been under development for four years at the Shanghai Aerospace System Engineering Institute, where a laboratory has been outfitted to replicate the lunar surface. The 1.5-metre-high, 200-kilogram rover is designed to transmit video in real time, dig for and analyze soil samples and produce three dimensional images of the lunar surface.
With an average speed of 100 metres per hour, it can negotiate inclines and has automatic sensors to prevent it from crashing into other objects. Researchers were still refining its ability to handle low gravity, exposure to cosmic rays and temperature extremes and plan to build an even more sophisticated laboratory to mimic those conditions.
No figures were given for the cost of the rover program and the institute is not accepting media interviews.

Shanghai Daily report. Re-reported by (Canadian) cbc.ca ....on April 2 '07

Mike Kremer.

Who exactly owns the moon anyway, does every nation on Earth own it ? I would imagine the correct answer must be the most powerfull military nations on earth own the moon.History has shown us that powerfull nations will take what they want because they can, As the old saying goes "Might is Right" !
Helium 3 in the future would be like oil today and the people who are making money out of oil today will be making the biggest investments into the recovery of Helium 3 from the Moon.They will be doing it to make more money for themselves because that's what business men do.Should we be digging up the moon for Helium 3, so we can provide cheap power for everyone on the earth ? Wouldn't it be better to try and live within our own means first using renewable energy sources on the earth before looking at extraterestrial fuel recovery activities ? I think we should also try and fix our own planet first before we go and pollute other planets and planetoids.History has shown us that we have made terrible environmental mistakes in the past, just look at the Amazon Rain Forrest, surely we don't want to keep repeating these mistakes ! There is a lot we don't know about the moon and yet we already have businessmen talking about exploiting the moon for energy.I personaly think The moon should initialy be explored for scientific reasons.We should try and understand the moon first before we start a crazy lunar gold rush !

In short: No State can claim a part of outer space as its own. The moon and other celestial bodies are not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of occupation, or by any other means.

The official info is here: http://www.unoosa.org/oosa/SpaceLaw/treaties.html

United Nations Treaties and Principles on Outer Space: http://www.unoosa.org/pdf/publications/STSPACE11E.pdf Go to: PART 1, E. Agreement Governing the Activities of States on the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, Pages 27-35

Extract: "Article 8. 1. States Parties may pursue their activities in the exploration and use of the Moon anywhere on or below its surface, subject to the provisions of this Agreement."

True, but I believe Ninelivecat is correct:

"History has shown us that powerfull nations will take what they want because they can". Treaty or no treaty.

Certainly Ninelivecat is correct. Human nature is unlikely to take a turn for the better due to 1/6 gravity. It's not only history. It's happening right now.

Well this competition should get us off our lazy butts to persue phaser technology!

so, who's ready for the Cold War round 2?