China Discovers New Moon Mineral

[Ben]

The 2020 Chinese moon mission resulted in the discovery of a new moon mineral containing Helium-3:

https://www.freethink.com/space/moon-mineral

[230RN]

The 2020 Chinese moon mission resulted in the discovery of a new moon mineral containing Helium-3:

https://www.freethink.com/space/moon-mineral

The heading sorta sounds like ³He itself is a "new" mineral nobody's seen before, but it was predicted and isolated here on earth in the 1930s. 

[kgbsquirrel]

The heading sorta sounds like ³He itself is a "new" mineral nobody's seen before, but it was predicted and isolated here on earth in the 1930s.

BLUF: Some novel minerals were found on the moon, and these novel minerals have an affinity for catching and holding onto solar produced 3-He.  This is industrially useful because it is fairly straight forward in the collection methods: scoop it up, load in furnace, heat, capture escaping gasses.  With this initial prospecting done there is now a practical reason to push forward with remote lunar mining development and initial colonization/long-term habitation for the necessary technicians.

[MechAg94]

Can we use Helium-3 right now?  From what I see the answer is no.  Sounds nice for the future, but doesn't really put us in a big hurry to get there.  I am sure there will probably be other stuff to mine there, but same for near Earth asteroids.  Another reason to keep letting our space industry mature so we can keep looking for new materials among other things.

[Perd Hapley]

The He franchise is following the usual pattern. He1 was a blockbuster. Number 2 was a sophomore slump. He3: He's Back, and This Time He Brought Friends has a lot of industry buzz, and is shaping up to be a huge hit.

[kgbsquirrel]

The He franchise is following the usual pattern. He1 was a blockbuster. Number 2 was a sophomore slump. He3: He's Back, and This Time He Brought Friends has a lot of industry buzz, and is shaping up to be a huge hit.

The first two were short lived fads that didn't catch on. The third and fourth installments have some real staying power however. 

[Tuco]

china says they went to the moon and discovered something new

This reminds me of Kim Jong Il's famous record breaking golf score.
https://cms-production-bridging.thescore.com/pga/news/1972845

[MechAg94]

The first two were short lived fads that didn't catch on. The third and fourth installments have some real staying power however.

Regular He found that balloon niche.  It went high initially.  I see it hanging around for a bit, but it will probably drop over time. 

[230RN]

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