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I wonder if it would be very useful in a moon base to actually launch further into the universe considering the lower gravity well. With a single fusion power p
by lowpro 9y ago
I wonder if it would be very useful in a moon base to actually launch further into the universe considering the lower gravity well. With a single fusion power point and just using moon materials to make a single launch point outside of earth. You wouldn't need to 'colonize' the moon in that a single base could make more practical sense.
That being said, how much He-3 do we really need for fusion? I was under the impression fusion reactions lasted a very long time considering the energy output to mass used, so would mining the substance once or twice suffice for as many fusion reactors as we would need on Earth?
Total energy usage across the globe was about 18.0 terawatts in 2013, and apparently the ITER fusion reactor would produce 500 Megawatts of power using a 1/2 gram of hydrogen per year [1], so if Helium 3 was more efficient, we would need hardly any to cover global power generation, and even plan for future power usage.
[1] https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/123837-500mw-from-half-a-gram-of-hydrogen-the-hunt-for-fusion-power-heats-up https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/123837-500mw-from-half-a...
- philipkglass 9y agoFrom the article you linked, "ITER is hoping to produce 500 megawatts over 1,000 seconds from just 50 megawatts of input power and 0.5 grams of hydrogen fuel." (My emphasis.) The half-gram of fuel is to run for minutes, not months. With optimistic assumptions, complete fusion of one gram of He-3 (with deuterium) can produce 1/3 * 6.02 * 10^23 * 18.354 * 4.4505 * 10^-20 = 163913 kWh of primary (thermal) energy. If world primary energy demand is 18 terawatts, that's 18 * 10^9 * 24 * 365 = 157680000000000 kWh annually. 157680000000000 / 163913 = 961973729 grams (962 metric tons) of He-3 per year to cover all primary energy demand.