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Well, we could always find another large deposit of helium in some undiscovered salt mine. Unlikely, but there are still parts of the earth largely unsurveyed.
by harshpotatoes 16y ago
Well, we could always find another large deposit of helium in some undiscovered salt mine. Unlikely, but there are still parts of the earth largely unsurveyed. So maybe. After that, maybe in 50 years we'll start mining helium3 from the moon, or producing it ourselves in a fusion reactor.
- phreeza 16y agoFrom what I understand, He-3 would actually be consumed in plausible energy-netting fusion reactions, which is the reason for the whole lunar mining speculation. I think prices would need to be pretty steep before lunar mining makes economic sense.
- harshpotatoes 16y agoThe reaction you're thinking of is: Deuterium + He3 -> proton + He4 + energy. So the reaction also yields helium. Helium is a very common product from fusion reactions. We can produce it now, just not in very large quantities. But cryogenics have money, and a need for helium, meaning they might be willing to pay for it being produced in such a way in the future.
- evgen 16y agoGiven the amount of energy that is produced for every atom of helium you are getting this is an unlikely path to adding to the global helium reserves. We would be able to power a small country with the energy that would be produced in the course of getting enough helium to fill a small blimp.