India’s space program wants to go where no country has gone before – to the south of the moon. And once it gets there, it will explore the potential for a waste-free source of nuclear energy that could be worth trillions of dollars.
The NASA-like country will launch a rover in October to survey virgin land on the lunar surface and study bark samples for water and helium-3 signs. That isotope is confined to Earth but so abundant on the moon that it could theoretically meet global energy demands for 250 years if used.
 |
| The atomic structure of Helium-3 may look like a dead clown, but it could mean bad money for anyone who recovers it from the moon. |
“The countries that have the potential to take that source from the moon to Earth will be responsible for the process,” said K. Sivan, chairman of the Indian Space Research Group. “I don’t want to be just part of them, I want to lead them. ”
The mission would consolidate India’s place among the fleet of explorers racing to the moon, Mars and beyond for scientific, commercial or military benefits. The governments of the US, China, India, Japan and Russia are competing with startups and billionaires Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson to launch satellites, robotic lords, astronauts and tourists into the cosmos.
The rover is landing one step in a planned sequence for an ISRO that includes orbiting a space station and, possibly, an Indian crew on the moon. The government has not yet set a timetable.
“We are ready and waiting,” said Sivan, an aeronautics engineer who joined ISRO in 1982. “We are well equipped to undertake this unique program.”
China is the only country to put a lander and rover on the moon in this century with its Chang’e 3 mission in 2013. The country plans to return later this year by sending a probe to the beyond unexplored.
In the U.S., President Donald Trump has signed a directive calling for astronauts to return to the moon, and NASA’s planned $ 19 billion budget this year calls for the early launch of a lunar orbiter in the 2020s.
ISRO’s estimated budget is less than a 10th of that – around $ 1.7 billion – but performing tricks on the cheap has been a hallmark of the organization since the 1960s. The upcoming mission will cost about $ 125 million – or less than a quarter of Snap Inc. co-founder Evan Spiegel’s compensation last year, the maximum for a chief executive of a public trading company, according to Bloomberg payroll.
This is not the first lunar mission in India. The craft Chandrayaan-1, launched in October 2008, completed more than 3,400 orbits and launched a probe that detected surface water molecules for the first time.
The upcoming Chandrayaan-2 launch includes an orbiter, lander and a rectangular rover. The six-wheeled, solar-powered vehicle will collect information for at least 14 days and cover a space with a 400-meter radius.
The rover will send images to the landlord, and the lawyer will send those back to ISRO for analysis.
The main goal, however, is to find deposits of helium-3. Solar winds have damaged the moon with large amounts of helium-3 as it is not protected by a magnetic field like the Earth.
The presence of helium-3 has been confirmed in lunar samples returned by Apollo missions, and Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison Schmitt, a geologist who walked on the moon in December 1972, is a strong supporter of helium-3 mining.
“It is thought that this isotope could provide safer nuclear energy in a fusion reactor, as it is not radioactive and would not produce hazardous waste products,” said the European Space Agency.
 IMDB / Sony images |
| Helium-3 mining was the reason for Sam Rockwell’s solo mission in the 2009 film Moon. |
About 1 million metric tons of helium-3 is rooted in the moon, although only about a quarter of that could be taken to Earth, said Gerald Kulcinski, director of the Institute of Fusion Technology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a former member of NASA Advisory Council.
That’s still enough to meet current global energy demands for at least two, and possibly as many as five, centuries, Kulcinski said. He estimated that helium-3 was worth about $ 5 billion per tonne, making it worth 250,000 tons in the trillions of dollars.
To be sure, there are a number of obstacles to overcome before the material can be used – including logistics of collection and delivery back to Earth and the construction of fusion power machines to convert the material into energy. These costs would be stratospheric.
“If that can be broken, India should be part of that effort,” said Lydia Powell, who runs the Center for Resource Management at the New Observer Research Foundation’s think tank. “If the cost makes sense, it will become a game changer, no doubt about it. ”
In addition, the moon will not be easy to mine. Only the U.S. and Luxembourg have passed legislation that allows commercial organizations to hold on to what they have mined from space, said David Todd, head of space content at Northampton, England-based Seradata Limited. There is no international agreement on the issue.
“Ultimately, it will be like fishing in the sea in international waters,” said Todd. “While a national state cannot hold international waters, fish will be the property of fishermen when they fish. ”
The Indian government is tackling the influx of commercial companies into space by drafting legislation to launch satellites, company registrations and responsibility, said GV Anand Bhushan, a partner based in the Chennai at the law firm of Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co. It does not cover lunar mining.
But the country’s only astronaut isn’t entirely on board by turning the moon into a place of business.
Rakesh Sharma, who spent nearly eight days aboard a Russian spacecraft in 1984, said countries and private enterprises should work together to develop human colonies elsewhere as Earth moves. running out of resources and facing potential disasters such as asteroid strikes.
“You can’t go to the moon and draw boundaries,” Sharma said. “I want India to show that we can use space technology for the good of the people. ”