Thirty, 20, or even 10 years ago, there was neither the political will, the technology nor the money needed to mine space resources, but things are changing, and they are changing fast, an ex-CIA space analyst warns. Solar space power, multi-billion asteroid mining, and the Moon’s Helium-3 resources are up for grab. As a result, the U.S., China, Russia, Europe, the U.K. and other countries are playing into this silent war.
If today the world were to switch entirely to green energy — plugging out of fossil fuels, the electric grids would collapse in a final dying effort to meet demand. Helium-3 fusion has been presented as the “Holy Grail” of energy. Helium-3 fusion is what powers our Sun and stars. It produces no radioactive waste, and just 25 tons of it could power an entire country for a year. The catch? There are only 100 kilos of Helium-3 on our planet.
As the Artemis Moon mission moved forward, NASA and Intuitive Machines announced the landing spot for the luna drill. Science says there are 1.1 million metric tons of helium-3 on the Moon, enough to power human energy needs for up to 10,000 years. But, ex-CIA officer, Founder, and Executive Director of Foundation for the Future, Tim Chrisman, says politics in the U.S. is falling behind and missing the bigger picture. At the same time, China is throwing all the resources and the funds needed for space mining.
Chrisman says that whether the public knows it or not, the race to mine Helium-3 is well on its way. Chrisman adds that whoever gets to it first makes a huge difference, leveraging global politics and the world economies. Those who oppose Helium-3 mining argue that bringing back tonnes of material on small spacecraft is too expensive, but spaceships like Elon Musk’s Starship, with a weekly capacity of ferrying 100 tons using the same craft, set that argument to rest.
Chrisman calls for the political apparatus in the U.S. to go beyond the established vision of space as “moderately useful” and to understand its full potential. The decisions made today will have historical consequences in the future. “The Moon will be the first place any resource will be extracted from,” Chrisman assures.
Chrisman believes other misconceptions of space need to be addressed. “The space community talks about space exploration and development as though it is science fiction come to life. We need to stop pretending space is hard,” Chrisman says. His goal is to make a difference by harnessing human space habitation, generating jobs, and energy projects in space.
Source: The Jerusalem Post, Foundation for the Future
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