Helium 3 and Me

[Daveparts]

“We set sail on this new sea because there is new knowledge to be gained, and new rights to be won, and they must be won and used for the progress of all people. For space science, like nuclear science and all technology, has no conscience of its own. Whether it will become a force for good or ill depends on man, and only if the United States occupies a position of pre-eminence can we help decide whether this new ocean will be a sea of peace or a new terrifying theater of war.” (John F. Kennedy)


HERE MEN FROM THE PLANET EARTH
FIRST SET FOOT UPON THE MOON
JULY 1969 A.D.
WE CAME IN PEACE FOR ALL MANKIND



“We may discover resources on the moon or Mars that will boggle the imagination, that will test our limits to dream. And the fascination generated by further exploration will inspire our young people to study math and science and engineering and create a new generation of innovators and pioneers.

This will be a great and unifying mission for NASA. And we know that you'll achieve it.
I've directed Administrator O'Keefe to review all of NASA's current space flight and exploration activities and direct them toward the goals I have outlined.
I'll also form a commission of private- and public-sector experts to advise on implementing the vision that I've outlined today. This commission will report to me within four months of its first meeting.” (George W. Bush)

Do you see the difference in symbolism? Kennedy was saying we need to go to space to protect both space and ourselves. Bush is saying there is money to be made. That if we allocate the necessary funds then private corporations will benefit greatly and through that humanity will benefit as well.

Both men were alluding to things left unsaid, Kennedy at the height of the cold war feared a Russian occupied moon and the real threat of a weaponized outer space. All American administrations have pushed for treaties outlawing weapons in space except for this one.
Even the military men fear a new and even more expensive threshold to do what could be accomplished just as effectively with current technology. The Bush administration alludes to resources and just as Kennedy meant Russia. Bush means Helium 3, Helium 3 is a non-radioactive isotope that might possibly make Fusion electrical generation possible. The Bush Plaque on the moon might read as follows.

We Came in Fleets to Build Strip Mines

Being from the generation that watched the space race I never doubted that one day the resources from space would be exploited. The current estimates are that the moon might hold one million tons of Helium 3, enough to last a millennium. Blown there by the solar winds it is not evenly distributed so first come first served. Choice lots are still available!

I don’t know, call me cynical but does anyone think George W. Bush intends on sharing?
Or will it be just another corporate boondoggle where a few profit at the expense of the many. Bush in his remarks said specifically that this wasn’t a race but as is the case with most of what George says, the opposite is true.

Proponents of the plan speak openly and are unembarrassed by the term strip mine. They see the moon as just property to be exploited. They want to take their lunar knowledge that would fit on the head of a pin and begin strip mining with an ignorance that would fill the Grand Canyon. Not since Spindle Top has their been such a conjunction of ignorance and arrogance in the energy field. You see Helium 3 is not a naturally occurring mineral on Earth the only current source is from deactivated nuclear weapons. The Earth’s atmosphere deflects the Helium 3 carried to us on the solar winds.

They claim Helium 3 will make fusion power practical, inexpensive and inexhaustible. Sorry, if I cock a skeptical eye at those claims but I’m from the generation promised atomic automobiles and free electricity. Almost sixty years on and nuclear power has yet to produce one profit dollar without government subsidy. And even if Helium 3 is the end all and be all there’s just something deep down inside of me that rejects the idea of strip mining the moon. Maybe it’s romanticism or maybe I reject the idea of taking our cockroach ways to another celestial body. Either way, I don’t see it as a good trade off.

I look at the International Space Station as a good model, international cooperation for the benefit of mankind in line with Kennedy’s calling. The important understanding that the moon is not the property of any one nation but a shared asset of humanity and shouldn’t be turned over to whaling industries or reduced to a Stutters mill boomtown.

I’m all for space exploration as every step outward teaches us more about ourselves. But when a man who doesn’t even believe in Darwinism starts talking about exploration and exploitation of the cosmos and of a literal pie in the sky my blood runs cold. This administration has abrogated treaties against weapons in space and used the exact language it used involving the rape of Iraq. “We'll invite other nations to share the challenges and opportunities of this new era of discovery.” That’s not what Kennedy said or had in mind was it? “We set sail on this new sea because there is new knowledge to be gained, and new rights to be won, and they must be won and used for the progress of all people.”

Helium 3 is not a secret just as Bush’s plans are not a secret. Russia China and India are all eyeing their rights to the moon as are the Japanese and the Europeans. Either international effort or international treaty are required before the first shovel of lunar soil is turned or Kennedy’s prophecy might well be fulfilled. “Whether this new ocean will be a sea of peace or a new terrifying theater of war.”