Moon Mining.....Helium 3....and the FUTURE!

I'm a space cadet to be sure.

Here is a whole page of links regards lunar mining of Helium 3.

And check out this page that gives a good visual representation of how to get most of your materials from moondust, and here is more info from the Artemis Project, probably the baest known firm looking to do moon mining for profit.

Although I think some of the economic assumptions are a bit optimistic the principle is sound. Note how useful the slag is, one could build all sorts of cool stuff out of it. The dust itself can be used to build local infrastructure or even building spaceships.

Now once we have an infrastructure on the moon, and enough He3 reactors, then we can go to Saturn or (later) the Ice Giants, Neptune and Uranus. Helium 3 is a fair components of their atmospheres. Saturn has the disadvantage of higher gravity and lower concentration of He3, but it has two big advantages IMVHO. It is much closer, and has Titan, which, aside from earth is likely the easiest place to put a long term human habitat. (As its atmosphere is thicker, there is more nitrogen in Titan than Earths and the abundant water, and methane is an embarasement of organic riches compared to the Moon or Mars).

Soooo, Lunar mining might very well be the key to getting by comfortably without dinosaur juice. :) More importantly Luna and Titan (as well as Mars of course) are actually doable as frontiers for at the very least subsistance living.

I wanna go!