Energy: Part 2

Hey, sorry it took a little longer than anticipated to post this, I've been busier than usual for the past few weeks.

In the first part of my Energy series, I primarily focused on solving the energy needs for vehicles, but equally as important is the energy that powers our homes. Right now, depending on where you live, your home is either being powered by a non-renewable resource, such as coal, oil, or natural gas, or is being powered by a renewable source, such as wind, hydro-electric, or solar. A major source of energy around the world is nuclear energy, which is caused by nuclear fission, the splitting of atoms. The technology for nuclear fission, which is also used in nuclear bombs, was developed during WWII, and generally remains unchanged today. And despite Chernobyl and Three Mile Island, nuclear energy is extremely safe. Nuclear power plants are the most heavily fortified and guarded private facilities in the world. In fact, there is more radiation surrounding coal power plants than there is surrounding nuclear power plants. In the future, nuclear energy will become increasingly more important to quench our thirst for more energy.

Currently under development, is the process of nuclear fusion, which is the process of combining atoms. Nuclear fusion, unlike fission, is theoretically much safer and does create the amount of radiation as fission. Though it isn't expected to be fully developed for another few decades, primarily because of a lack of funding, the attainment of nuclear fusion will coincide with a very important era in modern history: the return to and the exploitation of the Moon. Okay, so what does the Moon have to do with nuclear fusion you may be asking?

In the lunar regolith, there is an element that has been expelled by the Sun for 4.5 billion years that will prove to be highly effective for nuclear fusion: Helium-3. There is enough Helium-3 on the Moon to power a global population of roughly 10 billion (which is what current estimates say the population should round off at) at consumption levels that the United States experiences now, for
4 BILLION YEARS. By that time, the Earth won't be habitable for any kind of civilization, or life.

There is not an energy shortage. Even if we were to allow NASA to lead the way on this one, NASA's budget only accounts for one percent ($16 billion) of the national budget, and it is with that budget that we will return to the Moon and build lunar bases with. By the time there is a market for helium-3, the private spaceflight industry should be capable of making sorties to the Moon, and demand for helium-3 should allow for rapid growth in that area of spaceflight, minimizing the need for the government to do all the heavy work.