In the current space race, China is firmly committed to making its mark in lunar exploration. Its goal is not limited to just collecting soil samples from our only natural satellite: Beijing has a more ambitious vision in mind. The Chinese are eyeing the exploration of a resource that has the potential to revolutionize the energy industry on Earth: helium-3.
Helium-3 is a rare isotope of common Earth’s helium that many scientists see as a potential fuel for future nuclear fusion reactors. Its potential to provide a clean, non-radioactive and highly efficient energy source in the future has fired the imagination of scientists and engineers around the world.
Helium-3 was found by the Chinese on the Moon through samples collected during the Chinese Chang’e-5 space mission, which was launched in 2020. The mission made history by becoming the first in more than 40 years to bring back soil samples lunar to Earth.
It was from one of these samples that Changesite-(Y) emerged, a mineral in the shape of a transparent and colorless columnar crystal. It was found by the Chinese in a lunar rock and, after studies, the China Space Agency confirmed that they had found helium-3 particles in it.
This new discovery added an intriguing element to the Earth powers’ fight for space exploration.
According to the European Space Agency, helium-3 is a scarce resource on Earth, but it may be present in abundance in lunar soil. This is due to the difference between the Earth and the Moon in terms of protection against solar winds.
While the Earth is protected by its magnetic field, the Moon does not have this natural defense and, throughout its history, has been bombarded with large amounts of solar winds, which may have contributed to the generation of helium-3 in its soil.
This is why China now wants to go beyond collecting samples: the communist country has ambitious plans for future exploration of the Moon by 2030.
According to NASA, the Chinese plans include carrying out a mission to study the possibility of finding water at the south pole of the Moon and another that aims to build a permanent base on the natural satellite, which would have as its central objective carrying out studies and the exploration of new lunar resources, including the possible mining of helium-3.
China’s lunar ambitions have raised concerns from space agency leaders around the world, who fear that Xi Jinping’s country could seek monopolization or even militarization of lunar resources.
This is the case of NASA administrator Bill Nelson, who warned that the United States cannot afford “the luxury of falling behind in the race to explore the Moon”.
In an interview earlier this year with the website Politico, Nelson expressed his concerns that China could claim the south pole of the Moon to exclusively explore its resources if the Americans delay their missions to return to the satellite.
“I don’t want China to reach the South Pole first [da Lua] with humans and then say, ‘This is ours, stay out of it,’” Nelson said in the interview.
NASA has plans to take astronauts to the Moon again and establish a sustainable human presence there by 2025. The American space agency is moving forward with the Artemis program and has even announced who the astronauts chosen for the mission to return to the Moon are, which, in this At first, it will only orbit the satellite.
Mark Whittington, author of studies involving space exploration, stated in an opinion article written for the American website The Hill that there are several reasons for the current interest of economic powers in lunar exploration. Among them are science, commerce and also “pride rights”, which, according to him, translate into political influence before the international community.
“China’s return of helium-3 suggests that the Moon could become the Persian Gulf of the 21st century, providing clean, abundant fusion energy that could change the world in ways that are difficult to assess,” Whittington wrote.
In his article, Whittington noted that it is still difficult to currently develop a technology that makes helium-3 nuclear fusion work, due to existing technological obstacles. Therefore, he pointed out that “fusion with helium-3 may not become a reality before the middle of this century”.
However, it is not because of current technological difficulties that countries should not care at this time about the exploration of helium-3. According to Whittington, control over the isotope, which could become a great source of clean energy in the future, could determine a new global leadership.
For him, it is worrying to imagine that China takes on this role, as the communist country has a history full of human rights violations and curtailment of freedom of expression.
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