Slightly strange newspaper column on space resources

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/...rticle1626913/

To me, the logic goes:

1) The Cassini mission was way more cost-effective than the G8/G20
event (if you're outside Toronto)/fiasco (if you're inside Toronto)
2) Cassini shows that Titan is full-o-oil, so peak oil, ha!
3) Therefore, we ought to mine He3 from the moon

I may be missing some of the subtlety here.

.....Ed

On 7/6/2010 1:04 PM, Ed Treijs wrote:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/...rticle1626913/

To me, the logic goes:

1) The Cassini mission was way more cost-effective than the G8/G20
event (if you're outside Toronto)/fiasco (if you're inside Toronto)
2) Cassini shows that Titan is full-o-oil, so peak oil, ha!
3) Therefore, we ought to mine He3 from the moon

I may be missing some of the subtlety here.

Like for instance sending the Nostromo out to Titan to process the oil
and bring it back? ;-)

Pat

On Jul 6, 11:47*pm, Pat Flannery wrote:

I may be missing some of the subtlety here.

Like for instance sending the Nostromo out to Titan to process the oil
and bring it back? ;-)

A new life awaits you in the Off-world colonies! A chance to begin
again in a golden land of opportunity and adventure!

On Jul 6, 2:04 pm, Ed Treijs wrote:

3) Therefore, we ought to mine He3 from the moon

I may be missing some of the subtlety here.

....Ed


Helium 3 isn't a good reason for going to earth's moon. However...

Recent Chandrayaan 1 and LRO radar data indicate there are thick ice
sheets in lunar craters near the pole:
http://www.onorbit.com/node/2335
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/Mi..._deposits.html

Water is good for life support and radiation shielding. It can also be
split to hydrogen and oxygen which is good rocket propellent.

The moon is much closer to LEO and EML1 than the earth. EML1 is a good
staging location for beyond earth orbit missions (to mars, asteroids,
etc.) -- it has about a 2.4 km/sec advantage over LEO.

Supplying LEO and EML1 with lunar propellent could open some doors for
us.

I was happy to read in Neil Reynold's article:
"U.S. President Barack Obama cancelled the U.S. space shuttle program,
reversing president George W. Bush’s policy that NASA “should extend a
human presence across our solar system.” He has not, however, ended
all lunar exploration. NASA will still attempt to land robotic
“prospectors” on the moon within the next four years to test
technologies (in NASA’s words) for “in-situ resource utilization.” In
other words, for mining."

On Jul 7, 2:05*pm, Ed Treijs wrote:

A new life awaits you in the Off-world colonies! A chance to begin
again in a golden land of opportunity and adventure!

Makes more sense than gasoline at a million dollars a gallon. Which is
probably an underestimate of what it would cost to get it from Titan.

John Savard