China Claims to have material for nuclear fusion from the moon
(web.archive.org)
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Asteroid mining would be far more valuable in the long term.
That said I'm skeptical. The Chinese lie like breathing, and the moon is hardly a treasure trove of useful chemicals or minerals, least of all anything you could dig up with a probe.
Isn't it known to be a good source of He3 (relative to earth).
And they're talking about fusion
This part at least checks out.
It is a good source relative to earth but if fusion can be figured out at all it's probably easier just to use D-D or D-T instead of D-He.
Yeah, none of the fusion stuff is news, we've known the moon is probably relatively rich in He3 and it's probably a viable fusion fuel source for years.
The only new thing is the novel mineral structure, which is very likely useless and irrelevant. The only reason there are so many articles about it are probably China flexing it's western media tendrils to make some noise about China getting to name something from the moon, to boost its reputation as one of the big boys in space. Which was probably one of the strategic goals behind the mission in the first place, and makes me very skeptical that if they failed to actually find anything novel, they wouldn't just fabricate something themselves.
Very true.
Sure it has helium 3. How did they dig up, contain and return helium 3 in a device the size of a dog carrier?
Ancient chinese secret
In related news, strategic Calgon reserves are historically low.
Isn't asteroid mining only logical for out-of-earth utilization? That's what I saw somewhere.
yes an no. Materials like metals can be returned to earths surface in small quantities easily enough. Drop them in a ceramic ablation container and attach parachutes. For certain metals, it's even economical. But normally not.
When we were there we weren't looking for energy.
That said I doubt this material is stable fusion fuel.