Recent comments in /f/space

SvenTropics t1_j30g5w2 wrote

Reply to Helium-3 by fangedrandy

Helion has a plan to create helium-3 and then use it as a fuel source.

Basically it works like this:

  1. they use a process to extract deuterium from the ocean. (Vapor and electrolysis, this is easy enough)

  2. they use a dual plasma mechanism to slam two hyper heated balls of deuterium into each other. This fuses and creates helium-3 releasing a neutron which can be captured with a beryllium blanket making this process mostly energy neutral. (Some production) alternatively, this can just be moderated in water so as to not have any nuclear waste.

Note: Some tritium is also created, but this can be easily captured by mixing it with oxygen and letting this water vapor decay with a half life of 12 years into helium-3.

  1. they then use a separate reactor to slam two mixtures of helium-3 and deuterium into each other creating helium-4 and spitting out a proton. The proton pushes back on the magnetic field creating power directly without the need of a blanket or steam pumps. The loose proton finds an electron and is just hydrogen.
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fangedrandy OP t1_j30g05g wrote

Reply to comment by alainreid in Helium-3 by fangedrandy

I remember that Bush had plans to do/implement this when he was POTUS and then I never heard anything about it afterwards. Is AI really getting that advanced?

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Loon013 t1_j30bpk6 wrote

Reply to Helium-3 by fangedrandy

Helium 3 is much easier to produce on earth than it is to mine on the moon. Tritium (hydrogen with two neutrons) is used in h-bombs. It has a half life of 12 yrs and decays into helium 3. Tritium can be produced by bombarding lithium with neutrons.

And we are not capable of deuterium/helium 3 fusion reactors yet, which are orders of magnitude more difficult than deuterium/tritium reactors.

Fusion power is like a manned mars mission, always 20 to 30 years from now. I know there are recent developments that may change both, but they both still need significant breakthroughs.

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AWardfiction t1_j30a6vd wrote

Reply to Helium-3 by fangedrandy

We should skip the 'fighting wars over it' part and all work for the prosperity of our species. We can actually do that anytime we want.

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the_fungible_man t1_j309ovg wrote

Reply to Helium-3 by fangedrandy

Why would we? Currently there is no significant commercial or military use for ^(3)He. One of those is usually necessary to justify any effort to stockpile a resource.

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fangedrandy OP t1_j3089nd wrote

Reply to Helium-3 by fangedrandy

Both of those are astute observations. My thought process I guess was that the lunar regolith contains vast amounts of fusion material to be utilized alongside deuterium from our seawater.

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Lirdon t1_j307e3y wrote

Reply to Helium-3 by fangedrandy

Building helium 3 mines off planet are massively expensive, especially considering that we don’t have any colonies in space, you literally have to build everything from scratch. If we had colonies in space already, then maybe. This means that anyone that wants to do this will pay every high bill for something that there MIGHT be a market for in some future, its a mighty big risk for the investment needed.

In addition to that, most Tokamak reactors don’t use helium 3, so there is no real demand for it.

Apparently there is a way to synthesize Helium 3 on the earth, and it obviously would be cheaper than building colonies off planet.

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H-K_47 t1_j30748j wrote

Reply to Helium-3 by fangedrandy

Cuz we haven't even figured out basic nuclear fusion yet, let alone the kind that needs Helium-3. Even if we did, it would probably be cheaper to mine or produce it right here on Earth.

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