The current fusion technology emerging from Commonwealth Fusion Systems will provide a reason why coal will once again become a source of jobs and wealth in the United States. One of the elements needed to fuel the coming nuclear fusion reactor (called a tokamak), Helium-3 (He-3), will be a constraint on the development of sustainable fusion tokamaks. It will be necessary to mine the Moon for the estimated 1.1 million metric tons of He-3 that are on the far side of the Moon. CFS is estimating that its commercial sales of the ARC will begin in the early 2030s.
The advent of the space industry, to mine the Moon for He-3, will provide a lifeline to the struggling coal industry and provide thousands of coal mining jobs in the future.
Why Helium-3 is Important
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is generally considered to be one of the best universities in the world. So, it is not surprising that Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) began at MIT at the Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC). Using their AlcatorC-Mod tokamak, the PSFC tried an experiment with a three-ion fuel instead of the traditional two-ion fuel. Using radio frequency heating to ignite two milligrams of helium-three, the helium-3 then ignited deuterium, which in turn ignited the third-ion fuel, tritium. In the new three-ion fuel scheme, all the RF energy is absorbed by just a trace amount of helium-3, and the ion energy is boosted even more — to the range of activated fusion products.
Helium-3 is not indigenous to Earth. It can be harvested from tritium when tritium reaches a half-life of 12.3 years. While tritium is not indigenous to Earth as well, it can be made in a fission reactor. All of the helium-3 in commercial use today is produced by this method. This presents safety and radioactive waste problems.
With helium-3 now a key ingredient in the new fusion process, the demand for helium-3 will become inelastic in terms of economic demand. To satisfy demand another way is needed to produce more helium-3. This can be accomplished by the increased production of tritium, or to mine the Moon where 1.1 million metric tons of helium-3 are estimated to be present in the Moon’s regolith. The current estimated value of helium-3 on the Moon is $1.543 quadrillion. This does not take into account the expected increase in demand for helium-3 once the fusion tokamaks from CFS become operational.
Solar Radiation and Its Dangers to Humans
Solar radiation storms occur when the Sun experiences a large-scale magnetic eruption, which causes a coronal mass ejection and accelerates charged particles into space, the solar radiation wave then bombards the planets in the Sun’s Solar System. A solar eruption takes less than 10 minutes to reach Earth. Fortunately, for the inhabitants of Earth, the Earth’s electro-magnetic shield protects the human race from the damaging effects of a solar radiation storm. However as the human race begins to venture into space, to the Moon, to Mars, and eventually to the Asteroid Belt, the human race will need protection from the deadly effects of a solar radiation storm.
The International Space Station (ISS) is currently in low Earth orbit, taking advantage of the Earth’s electro-magnetic shield to help protect the astronauts against solar radiation storms that happen periodically. The ISS is also heavily shielded, which also protects the inhabitants of the ISS. However, Inter-Planetary Vehicles, and individuals working on the Moon will not have the protection afforded to the astronauts on the ISS, and must have protection against solar radiation. When humans venture beyond the Earth, they will need to take hydroponic gardens with them as well, to provide food and a source of oxygen. They will probably need to take small animals to be used as a potential food source. Solar radiation will kill any vegetable life it encounters as well as small animal life.
The best way to fight off solar radiation is lead aprons, and lead-polyethene-boron composites, as well as Boron Nitride Nanotubes. Boron Nitride Nanotubes are still being evaluated as a possible radiation shield, while the Polyethylene shielding has been tested and found to be able to protect vegetable life, small animal life and human beings.
Raj Kaul, a scientist in the Marshall’s Center’s Engineering Directorate has worked with polyethylene before when constructing armor protection for helicopters of the United States military. Kaul has said that polyethylene …”Since it is a ballistic shield, it also deflects micrometeorites, since it’s a fabric, it can be draped around molds and shaped into specific spacecraft components.” Polyethylene is lightweight, half the weight of aluminum, and would only be needed for that part of the spacecraft that carries human, animal and vegetable life.
Polyethylene is Made Out of Coal
Karl Zeigler, from the Max Planck Institute for Coal Research in Germany invented linear HDPE, which is polyethylene. In 1953, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry for his work in developing linear HDPE.
Polyethylene is too soft to be used as a frame for rockets and the spacecraft launched into space. However, it is malleable enough to be made part of the infrastructure of the aircraft, and to be made into a mesh, which would be interwoven into an astronaut’s spacesuit offering protection while not in a structure or a space craft.
Future shelters on the Moon could be built just below the Moon’s surface, with a support roof of Polyethylene instead of burying shelters at a deeper level to protect the inhabitants of these structures from a solar radiation storm. It has been hypothesized to build the structures deep into the bedrock of the Moon to provide protection from solar radiation, but this carries with it an element of risk. Moonquakes can be as high as 5.7 on the Richter scale. A structure buried deep within the Moons strata could be damaged, perhaps causing multiple fatalities, and billions of dollars in damage.
With the human race increasingly venturing out into space, it is imperative that they be protected from solar radiation.
Using coal as a means of protecting the human race in space would give thousands of workers around the world meaningful employment, as well as protecting the inhabitants of this planet.
