harikumar1964's blog

Today morning India got entry to another select group of space raring nations – following the successful preliminary stage launch of Chandrayan-I- our very own probe to the moon. This is not a lander, but an orbiter with a moon impact probe (MIP) to be launched to the surface of moon by the middle of next month which will plant our national flag on the surface of moon. If every thing goes well we will be the sixth nation to have a lunar probe. This has instruments  from NASA, ESA , Bulgaria apart from 5 probes of our own. This should be in moon’s outer orbit by early next week- just in time for the Diwali celebrations.

Among other things, this mission has ambitious plans of  mapping  Lunar surface in greater detail providing a 3-D atlas of moon and look for  Helium -3 – an isotope of Helium. This is a fuel for the future Nuclear fusion reactors- generating non polluting power and an end to the power crisis on earth.

Helium is the second lightest element. It has two protons and two neutrons in its nucleus with two electrons in orbit. This is the general form. Helium isotope-3 has 3 neutrons  in its nucleus and is ideal for nuclear fusion. This material is extremely rare on earth and is expected to be present in larger quantities in Moon. It could be an efficient fuel for nuclear fusion reactors. Today’s fusion reactors uses Tritium ( an isotope of Hydrogen) obtained from sea water, but Helium-3 will be more efficient producing even less radioactive waste.

The helium-3 found in the lunar soil comes originally from the Sun. A stream of particles from the Sun, called the solar wind, contains helium-3 which is deposited on the Moon’s surface. Earth’s magnetosphere protects us from the harmful charged particles from the sun called solar wind. Moon – being non magnetic , is exposed to solar wind and hence richer in Helium-3.

Energy is the key to all future lunar expeditions. The energy gain from the mining of lunar soil for Helium -3 and bringing it back to earth is 250 times- making it highly viable source of energy and it is estimated that 25  tonnes of this will  power the United states for an entire year. That is truly a cheap bargain.

Presently the lunar orbiter Chandrayan is in the lower earth orbit from where it will be gradually lifted to the transfer orbit and sent to sent to moon where initially it will establish an orbit at 1000 kms which will be lowered further to 100 Kms where it is designed to last for two years.  

Certain sections of society is questioning the rationale behind sending a lunar probe costing 3.8 billion rupees and that too to a place explored through manned mission four decades ago when  a quarter of the billion plus population is still struggling to get one square meal a day. Is it not re-inventing the wheel again at the expense of starving millions? Well our mission is slightly different. The world has not carried out serious study of Moon since the early 70s, and with modern instruments our study of moon will be much more comprehensive for rare minerals, and of course Helium-3 is the biggest attraction- and we will be one of the pioneers in this area – Remember Energy is might- money- Persian gulf being the perfect example . - and don’t forget we need enormous amount of energy to power this nation. My reasoning may not be very forceful and plausible, but then when more than 3 decades ago we started space exploration, half of our population was in dire poverty. And things have only improved economically. So lets keep our fingers crossed- may be this country could be the future hub for space exploration.

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