China sees the moon as a source of affordable helium-3

The space program of the Middle Kingdom is developing very rapidly. Not so long ago, the landing module of Chanye-3 left the 14th stage of hibernation in a row, and continued to work (do not confuse with Yuytu, this lunar rover broke, and not the landing module). Another Chinese device, the “Chanye 5-T1”, recently returned to Earth successfully .

The mission of the next mission is to collect and deliver 4 kilograms of lunar rocks directly to Earth, into the hands of Chinese scientists. This task must be performed by another probe, “Chanet 5.” Why do the Chinese moon breed? To estimate the content of the helium, a rare helium on Earth, helium-3. Back in August, the Chinese said that the Moon is a very promising source of this isotope, which can be used to conduct a "pure" thermonuclear reaction.

It has already been estimated that only 0.02 grams of helium-3 during the fusion reaction will release as much energy as energy is released when one barrel of oil is fully burned. DailyMail journalists estimated that 40 tons of helium-3 would be enough to provide the US with energy for a whole year.
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The main source of helium-3 in the solar system is the sun, which delivers the isotope to the moon through the "solar wind". Helium-3 almost does not reach Earth due to the presence of the magnetic field and ionosphere in the Earth. According to the World Security Network , the cost of extracting 1 ton of helium-3 on the moon can be $ 3 billion, which is economically viable. Experts from the United States believe that the total cost of creating the infrastructure for delivering helium-3 to Earth (creating spacecraft, starting work on the Moon, developing equipment for conducting thermonuclear reaction with helium-3) will be about $ 20 billion, the duration of such a project is 20 years .



But back to the Chinese. All of them are very practical people, and just so they would hardly have organized an expedition to the moon. But helium-3 may be enough incentive for the Chinese to develop a long-term project to study the moon. As you can see, while the project is moving in the right direction. Well, if everything works out (there are more than enough technical problems on the way to the project implementation, it’s worth remembering that we haven’t been able to achieve any lengthy fusion reaction yet), then humanity will be provided with energy for 10 thousand years - reserves of helium-3 on the moon are very large, and are estimated at 10 million tons.