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From: Bill Sloman <bill.sloman@ieee.org>
Newsgroups: sci.electronics.design
Subject: Re: US Intuitive Machines set for second moon landing in February
Date: Tue, 14 Jan 2025 02:40:28 +1100
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On 12/01/2025 3:14 am, john larkin wrote:
> On Sat, 11 Jan 2025 08:29:57 +0000, Jeff Layman <Jeff@invalid.invalid>
> wrote:
> 
>> On 11/01/2025 04:17, Bill Sloman wrote:
>>> On 11/01/2025 3:58 am, john larkin wrote:
>>>> On Fri, 10 Jan 2025 10:47:04 GMT, Jan Panteltje <alien@comet.invalid>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Intuitive Machines set for second landing, looking to build a lunar economy
>>>>> https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/01/intuitive-machines-set-for-second-landing-looking-to-build-a-lunar-economy/
>>>>
>>>> A "lunar economy" sounds silly. There's nothing up there but dirt and
>>>> radiation.
>>>
>>>
>>> And a whole lot of helium-3.
>>>
>>> https://arc.aiaa.org/doi/10.2514/6.2020-4001

<snip>


> The He3 concentration in moon dirt is estimated at up to 15 PPB, and
> conjectured that it could hit 50 PPB in some places.
> 
> One would have to sift through a lot of dirt to get a gram of He3, and
> you'd need robots, not human miners with picks and wheelbarrows.

Picks, shovels and wheelbarrows wouldn't make a lot of sense on a 
airless world,and any sensible person would heat the rock in a closed 
chamber and pump out any helium gas that came off.

> Even if He3 fusion worked, mining it on the moon and shipping it back
> to earth would probably be a huge net loser.

The assumption would be that you'd use it up up there.

> But NASA is in the business of losing money. They are always looking
> for ways to do that better.

It may look that way if you lack the wit to realise what they are 
actually doing, and the imagination to realise that some of what they 
are doing could actually be useful.

-- 
Bill Sloman, Sydney