Russia to Mine on the Moon by 2020

sxmjmae writes to tell us News.com is reporting that Russia has unveiled plans to establish a permanent mining operation on the moon by 2020 in order to extract the rare isotope Helium-3. From the article: "Helium-3 is a non-radioactive isotope of helium that can be used in nuclear fusion. Rare on earth but plentiful on the moon, it is seen by some experts as an ideal fuel because it is powerful, non-polluting and generates almost no radioactive by-product."

Had to be said..

[Tha_Big_Guy23]

Let's go ahead and get this one out of the way...

In Soviet Russia, the moon mines you...

All I gotta say is...

[topical_surfactant]

...good luck getting there. Moon landings require the combustion of huge piles of money.

And further...

[Billosaur]

The International Space Station (ISS) would play a key role in the project and a regular transport relay to the moon would be established with the help of the planned Clipper spaceship and the Parom, a space capsule intended to tug heavy cargo containers around space, Mr Sevastyanov said.

"Then we will be able to drop bombs on... is microphone still on?"

Re:Great energy source!

[temojen]

Not to mention stringing a power line between here and there.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

2020?

[TheRaven64]

Russia to mine the moon, Sweden to abandon fossil fuels... It seems like 2020 is a popular year today. I wonder if I'll have my flying car by then.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Great energy source!

[misleb]

Maybe a space elevator could double as as a a "space extension cord." Or maybe we could beam the energy back with a REALLY strong laser which is converted back to electricity here on Earth.

-matthew

Re:Great energy source!

[drinkypoo]

If we could come up with a gen-u-wine room temperature superconductor, we could just weave some into the space elevator, beam the power to the station from other satellites, and run the power that way... And if I grew wings, I could fly home...

I like it better this way...

[Elyjah]

In Soviet Russia, MINE moons YOU!

Re:Straight from the horse's mouth.

[macdaddy357]

Here is a top scientist from the Russian Space Agency explaining why [rathergood.com] they want to go to the moon so badly.