Unobtainium

I love these "mine the moon" concepts because they are so far-fetched. Here's a run down of the plan:
1) Set up $20 billion Moon base
2) Strip mine huge areas of the Lunar surface for Helium-3
3) Ship Helium-3 back to Earth for use as a fuel source for yet-to-be-invented fusion reactors
4) Repeat 2-3 while also paying for maintenance of Moon base.
Meanwhile:
5) Invent a fusion reactor with positive output
6) Build fusion reactor (several billion dollars)

I';m suddenly reminded of the movie Avatar (2009), in which the humans arrive on "Pandora" and set up an expensive mining operation to extract hilariously-named "unobtainium" which has a value of "20 million a kilo."

Back in reality, Harrison Schmitt, the advocate for this Helium-3 Lunar strip mining operation suggests the Helium-3 is worth at least "1.5 million a kilo"

The question I have to ask is this: how is this possibly a better solution than solar panels? Isn't it pretty common knowledge that all the world's electricity needs could be met with widespread adoption of solar?
Or, if this were to be an American-only operation and not some sort of international Helium-3 mining cooperative, the numbers become even more ludicrous. All America could easily be powered by solar energy into the next century for less money, with less risk to human life, and perhaps most importantly of all: solar panels can be purchased from companies that don't have a 60 year relationship with the DoD. Solar can be sourced from new startups. Solar companies could set up manufacturing facilities for all that power here in the U.S., and make a positive economic/jobs push.

I am no critic of fusion power. I have lauded it more than once on this blog. But sourcing fusion fuel from the Moon? Really? Maybe while we are up there we can extract all that water they say is trapped in the regolith. And we can find that Transformers crash site, too.

Now, I should point out that I've approached the ideas of Harrison Schmitt with more than a little cynicism before. Back in May, Schmitt outlined a post-NASA organization for space exploration he called the NSEA that basically was just NASA, rebooted. Last time he wanted a Moon base to keep it out of the hands of the Chinese. This time he wants a Moon base for Helium-3 mining. What will he try next?


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