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I've been thinking of it the same way since I learned that helium is a non-renewable fossil resource. Once it's gone, it's gone.
by kozak 5y ago
I've been thinking of it the same way since I learned that helium is a non-renewable fossil resource. Once it's gone, it's gone.
- aeternum 5y agoOnly on earth. Helium is the 2nd most abundant element in the universe.
- Xylakant 5y agoYou’ll have a hard time extracting it from the sun, though.
- bena 5y agoBut an easier time from the Moon. The Moon's soil is apparently lousy with Helium. There was a movie named Moon about a decade back where that was the main character's job, helium mining on the Moon. That's not to say it would be easy, but it's closer than the Sun. Because it is everywhere. In the various Star Trek shows, ships are made with something called "Bussard collectors" which basically scoop up particles like helium and hydrogen from space for use in the ship. Obviously both of those example are fiction. We don't have the capability to mine on the Moon or catch elements free floating in space. But those fictions are based on the fact that those elements are that abundant.
- perl4ever 5y ago>"Bussard collectors" I think I read somewhere that despite this being a science fiction trope forever, there may not be a region between "too thin to produce net power" and "thick enough to blow up a spaceship at relativistic speeds". And in practice, the interstellar medium turned out to be the former, too thin. In fact, I'm not sure but what someone may have calculated drag would exceed power generated, regardless of density.
- aeternum 5y agoLength contraction should also increase the apparent density for a ship travelling at relativistic speeds.
- Stevvo 5y agoThe Busard collectors in Star Trek are based on a real theoretical design; The Busard ramjet. I can't comment on its feasiblilty, but it would've actually captured elements free floating in space.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- skannamalai 5y agoas an aside: a "fossil" resource implies the feedstock is decayed organic matter. Trapped helium is finite, but it's much more like a metal or ore than oil, LNG, or coal, which all were formed from living things under time and pressure.
- dredmorbius 5y agoActually ... I just looked up the etymology in yesterday's discussion of whether or not petroleum is dinosaurs. Fossil means "dug up". So both fossil remains (remnents of ancient plants and animals) and fossil fuels are called that because they are dug (or drilled) from the ground. As opposed to harvested fuels (wood, dung, etc.). https://www.etymonline.com/word/fossil https://www.etymonline.com/word/fossil The popular meaning of "fossil" has somewhat orbited around the usage such that we associate "fossil fuels" with "fossil remains" rather than "dug from the ground". I don't know if that makes helium a "fossil" resource, though I could see the argument for that. We don't refer to other minerals (e.g., iron, much of which comes from banded iron formations, or limestone, from seashells), as "fossil" resources, despite both being dug from the earth and biological in origin.
- zabzonk 5y ago> I learned that helium is a non-renewable fossil resource It is renewed, by radioactive decay within the Earth, but very, very slowly.
- nradov 5y agoHelium is sort of renewable in that it's continuously produced by radioactive decay underground. That will continue effectively forever. But we're using the easily accessible helium far faster than it's being produced. Much of the helium we capture as part of natural gas extraction is totally wasted, just vented into the atmosphere.
- jandrese 5y agoAs we necessarily transition away from fossil fuels we also transition away from our primary source of helium.