Moon Fueled Nuclear Fusion
Allen Jiang
PhD Student | King’s College London | Robotics
Energy-Industrial Complex
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Charcoal – Bronze Age (2000BC)
Coal – Industrial Revolution (1700s)
Oil – Petroleum Age (1900s)
Nuclear Fission – Atomic Age (1950s)
Renewable Energy – Modern Day
• What’s next?
Fusion is the future
• Energy from active stars, the
most fundamental source of
energy in the universe
• Counter to fission, it is clean
and safe
• Extremely efficient
• Flexible and sustainable
Heavy water, tritium, and helium-3
– Deuterium, heavy hydrogen, hydrogen-2, 2D
• 1 Proton, 1 Neutron
• Abundant
• Stable, non-radioactive
– Tritium, triton, hydrogen-3, 3T
• 1 Proton, 2 Neutrons
• Rare, 225 kg world supply
• Radioactive, decays into Helium-3 (12-year half-life)
– Helium-3, 3He
• 2 Protons, 1 Neutron
• Rare (on Earth)
• Stable, non-radioactive
Current Technology:
Deuterium + Tritium reaction -> 17.6 MeV
Future Technology:
Deuterium + Helium-3 reaction -> 18.3 MeV
Helium-3 + Helium-3 reaction -> 12.9 MeV
Current Progress
• International Thermonuclear Experimental
Reactor (ITER)
– Tokamak construction began in 2010
• National Ignition Facility (NIF)
– Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
– October 2010 test
– 1.5 MJ delivered to target by laser
– 1.2 MJ required for fusion ignition (D-T)
The moon
• 1 million tons of He-3 on the lunar surface
• This amount will produce energy (D-He3)
which is 10 times the amount of all of
Earth’s fossil fuels, and 2 times the amount
of all of Earth’s uranium
Mining
• The 6 manned lunar landings brought
back over 380 kg of rocks and soil
• Bigelow Aerospace plans to launch its
BA 330 module in 2014
• NASA has
completed work
on its new Space
Exploration Vehicle
• NASA’s Robonaut 2
is on board the ISS undergoing testing
Transport
• May 2010, NASA begins Project
Morpheus, contracts Armadillo
Aerospace for a lunar lander
• November 2010, Ad Astra Rocket
Company runs test on VASIMR
(Variable Specific Impulse
Magnetoplasma Rocket)
• April 2011, SpaceX announced the
Falcon Heavy
Cost effectiveness
• The Apollo project cost $136 billion,
and employed 400,000 people
• NASA Apollo research provided a 33%
return on investment through direct
economics boosts to the USA
• A world’s supply of He-3 would
generate $300 billion per year
Challenges
• Public is wary of nuclear proliferation
• Space travel is too expensive
• Energy today is already being fulfilled
Big picture
Harvesting the moon for Helium-3 will:
• Provide ample clean, safe energy
• Create many new jobs
• Advance research in new technology
“By exploring other worlds we safeguard this one. By itself,
I think this fact more than justifies the money our species
has spent in sending ships to other worlds. It is our fate to
live during one of the most perilous and, at the same time,
one of the most hopeful chapters in human history.”
– Carl Sagan
Today, the foundation exists to achieve
fusion, space travel, and beyond.
References
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_industry
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http://www.lbl.gov/abc/Basic.html
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_fusion
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium-3
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_soil
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tritium
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_wind
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Exploration_Vehicle
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binding_energy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_program
https://lasers.llnl.gov/programs/nic/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8485669.stm
http://www.iter.org
http://lasers.llnl.gov/
http://www.asi.org/adb/02/09/he3-intro.html
http://www.wired.com/science/space/news/2006/12/72
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http://www.space.com/11311-spacex-huge-privaterocket-moon-mars.html
http://morpheuslander.jsc.nasa.gov/
http://www.armadilloaerospace.com/n.x/Armadillo/Ho
me
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_Budget#Cost_of_pro
ject_Apollo
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variable_specific_impulse_
magnetoplasma_rocket
http://www.adastrarocket.com/aarc/VASIMR
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BA_330
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_crisis
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Carl_Sagan