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Lunar Mining of Helium-3
There is no doubt that one of the most difficult problems that a peaceful world will face in the 21st century will be to secure an adequate, safe, clean, and economical source of energy. Existence of lunar helium-3, to be used as fuel for fusion reactors, is well documented; verified from numerous Apollo and Luna mission samples, current analyses indicate that there are at least 1 million tonnes embedded in the lunar surface. The helium-3 would be used as fuel for fusion reactors.
Related Links
- Gallery of He-3 Media Coverage
- D-3He Fusion Overview poster
- "Resources from Space" class notes
- A Field Trip to the Moon
- Safe, Clean Abundant Energy from the Moon [13 min Quicktime video] [170 MB .avi file]
FTI Publications
UWFDM-676 Lunar Source of He-3 for Commercial Fusion Power; L.J. Wittenberg, J.F. Santarius and G.L. Kulcinski, March 1986 [published in Fusion Technology 10, 167 (1986)]. (37 pages, 1.6 MB)
UWFDM-742 Helium-3 Fueling Concepts for Magnetically Confined Fusion; L.J. Wittenberg, October 1987 [Presented at the 12th Symposium on Fusion Engineering, 12-16 October 1987, Monterey CA]. (6 pages, 707 kB)
UWFDM-764 Lunar He3, Fusion Propulsion, and Space Development; J.F. Santarius, June 1988 (revised August 1988) [Second Conference on Lunar Bases and Space Activities of the 21st Century (NASA Conf. Pub. 3166, Vol. 2 (1992) 459]. (31 pages, 1.4 MB)
UWFDM-766 Energy Requirements for Helium-3 Mining Operations on the Moon; G.L. Kulcinski, I.N. Sviatoslavsky, J.F. Santarius, L.J. Wittenberg, E.N. Cameron, T.M. Crabb, M.K. Jacobs, October 1988 [presented at the Fifth Symposium on Space Nuclear Power Systems, 11-14 January 1988, Albuquerque NM]. (21 pages, 2.1 MB)
UWFDM-769 Terrestrial Sources of Helium-3 Fusion Fuel - A Trip to the Center of the Earth; Layton J. Wittenberg, October 1988 (revised November 1988) [presented at the 8th Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy, 9-13 October 1988, Salt Lake City UT]. (7 pages, 933 kB)
UWFDM-794 Astrofuel - An Energy Source for the 21st Century; J.F. Santarius and G.L. Kulcinski, July 1989 [Wisconsin Professional Engineer 30:6 (1989) 14]. (14 pages, 456 kB)
UWFDM-814 Pellet Fueling of Helium-3 Enclosed in Li and Be Shells; Layton J. Wittenberg, October 1989 [Presented at the 13th Symposium on Fusion Engineering, 2-6 October 1989, Knoxville TN]. (7 pages, 544 kB)
UWFDM-817 Mining Helium-3 from the Moon - A Solution to the Earth's Energy Needs in the 21st Century; G.L. Kulcinski, H.H. Schmitt, E.N. Cameron, I.N. Sviatoslavsky, November 1989 [presented at the 1990 SME Annual Meeting, 26 February - 1 March 1990, Salt Lake City UT]. (13 pages, 2.1 MB)
UWFDM-826 Fusion Power from Lunar Resources; G.L. Kulcinski and H.H. Schmitt, October 1990 (revised September 1991) [presented at the 41st Congress of the International Astronautical Federation, Dresden, Germany, 6-12 October 1990. To be published in Fusion Technology]. (25 pages, 625 kB)
UWFDM-879 A Resource Assessment and Extraction of Lunar 3He; G.L. Kulcinski, January 1992 [presented at the US-USSR Workshop on D-3He Reactor Studies, 25 September - 2 October 1991, Moscow]. (17 pages, 504 kB)
UWFDM-935 Fifty Years of Research in Helium-3 Fusion and Helium-3 Resources; J.C. Crabb, S.W. White, L.P. Wainwright, S.E. Kratz, G.L. Kulcinski, December 1993 (revised May 1994). (134 pages, 1.7 MB)
UWFDM-961 The Early Sun: Precursor to Helium and Neon Isotopes in the Earth; L.J. Wittenberg, July 1994 [oral presentation at the Eighth International Conference on Geochronology and Isotope Geology, June 5-11, 1994, Berkeley CA]. (24 pages, 459 kB)
UWFDM-967 Non-Lunar 3He Resources; L.J. Wittenberg, July 1994 (revised July 1994) [presented at the Second Wisconsin Symposium on Helium-3 and Fusion Power, 19-21 July 1993, Madison WI]. (30 pages, 600 kB)
UWFDM-972 Advanced-Fuel Heat Flux, Power Density and Direct Conversion Issues; J.F. Santarius, November 1994 [Presented at the Sixth International Toki Conference, Toki-City, Japan, 29 November - 2 December 1994; published in Fusion Technology 27 (April 1995)]. (7 pages, 744 kB)
UWFDM-1001 Impact of Lunar Volatiles Produced During 3He Mining Activities; G.L. Kulcinski, I.N. Sviatoslavsky, L.J. Wittenberg, January 1996 [Presented at the 34th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting and Exhibit, Reno, NV, 15-18 January 1996]. (12 pages, 290 kB)
UWFDM-1003 A Current Bibliography of Helium-3 Research; S.W. White, January 1996. (143 pages, 8.0 MB)
UWFDM-1062 Could Advanced Fusion Fuels Be Used with Today's Technology?; J.F. Santarius, G.L. Kulcinski, L.A. El-Guebaly, H.Y. Khater, January 1998 [presented at Fusion Power Associates Annual Meeting, August 27-29, 1997, Aspen CO; Journal of Fusion Energy, Vol. 17, No. 1, 1998, p. 33]. (18 pages, 828 kB)
UWFDM-1093 Net Energy Payback and CO2 Emissions from Helium-3 Fusion and Wind Electrical Power Plants; Scott W. White, December 1998 [Ph.D. thesis]. (182 pages, 7.9 MB)
UWFDM-1095 Trapping and Diffusion of Helium in Lunar Materials; Kimberly R. Harris-Kuhlman, December 1998 [Ph.D. thesis]. (298 pages, 14 MB)
UWFDM-1096 Terrestrial Analogs for Lunar Ilmenite; Kimberly R. Harris-Kuhlman and Gerald L. Kulcinski, April 1998 [Published in Space 98, The Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference and Exposition on Engineering, Construction, and Operations in Space, 26-30 April 1998, Albuquerque NM, Rodney G. Galloway and Stanley Lokaj, editors, pp. 533-540].
UWFDM-1103 Helium-3 on the Moon for Fusion Energy: the Persian Gulf of the 21st Century; L.A. Taylor and G.L. Kulcinski, May 1999 [published in Solar System Research, Vol. 33, No. 5, 1999, pp. 338-345]. [more]
UWFDM-1110 Investigation of Lunar Pickup-Ion Dynamics; Matthew J. Malecki, October 1999. (9 pages, 125 kB)
UWFDM-1120 Solar-Wind Hydrogen at the Lunar Poles; H.H. Schmitt, G.L. Kulcinski, J.F. Santarius, J. Ding, M.J. Malecki, M.J. Zalewski, February 2000 [Presented at SPACE 2000, The Seventh International Conference and Exposition on Engineering, Construction, Operations, and Business in Space, Albuquerque NM, 27 February - 2 March 2000; published in the Proceedings, pp. 653-660]. (11 pages, 204 kB)
UWFDM-1121 Source and Implications of Large Lunar Basin-Forming Objects; H.H. Schmitt, March 2000 [Presented at the 31st Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, Houston TX, 13-17 March 2000]. (4 pages, 83 kB)
UWFDM-1128 The Development of Lunar 3He Resources: Near-Term Applications and Long-Term Prospects; G.L. Kulcinski, R.P. Ashley, J.F. Santarius, G. Piefer, K.M. Subramanian, July 2000 [presented at the 4th International Conference on Exploration and Utilisation of the Moon, Noordwijk, The Netherlands, 10-15 July 2000]. (7 pages, 232 kB)
UWFDM-1131 Nuclear Power Without Radioactive Waste - The Promise of Lunar Helium-3; G.L. Kulcinski and H.H. Schmitt, July 2000 [presented at the Second Annual Lunar Development Conference, ``Return to the Moon II'', 20-21 July 2000, Las Vegas NV]. (9 pages, 228 kB)
UWFDM-1187 Lunar Cataclysm? Depends On What ``Cataclysm'' Means; Harrison H. Schmitt, March 2001 [Paper \#1133, 32nd Lunar and Planetary Conference, 12-16 March 2001, Houston TX]. (4 pages, 537 kB)
UWFDM-1189 A Lunar Field Geologist's Perspective 30 Years Later: Shocking Revelations About the Moon, Mars and Earth; Harrison H. Schmitt, October 2002 [2002 G.K. Gilbert Lecture, Annual Meeting and Exposition of the Geological Society of America, Planetary Geology Division, 27-30 October 2002, Denver CO]. (11 pages, 1.2 MB)
UWFDM-1190 Return to the Moon; Harrison H. Schmitt, December 2002 [Accepted essay for a forthcoming book, ``Our Worlds 2,'' edited by Alan Stern]. (10 pages, 907 kB)
UWFDM-1191 Business Approach To Lunar Base Activation; Harrison H. Schmitt, December 2002 [accepted by the Space Technology and Applications International Forum (STAIF-2003), 2-5 February 2003, Albuquerque NM]. (8 pages, 750 kB)
UWFDM-1192 Business Context of Space Tourism; Harrison H. Schmitt, December 2002 [accepted by the Space Technology and Applications International Forum (STAIF-2003), 2-5 February 2003, Albuquerque NM]. (6 pages, 594 kB)
UWFDM-1214 A Passively Proliferation-Proof Fusion Power Plant; J.F. Santarius, G.L. Kulcinski, L.A. El-Guebaly, November 2002 [presented at the 15th ANS Topical Meeting on Technology of Fusion Energy, 17-21 November 2002, Washington DC; published in Fusion Science and Technology 44, 289 (2003)]. (8 pages, 669 kB)
UWFDM-1291 A Strategy for D-3He Fusion Development; J.F. Santarius, G.L. Kulcinski, G.H. Miley, June 2006 [presented at the ANS Annual Meeting, 4-8 June 2006, Reno NV]. (5 pages, 657 kB) [more]
UWFDM-1296 Recent Developments in Environmental Aspects of D-3He Fueled Fusion Devices; Laila El-Guebaly and Massimo Zucchetti, October 2006 (revised April 2008) [published in Fusion Engineering and Design, vol. 82, 4 (2007) 351-361]. (27 pages, 630 kB) [more]
UWFDM-1304 A Lunar Volatiles Miner; Matthew E. Gajda, May 2006 [M.S. thesis]. (112 pages, 2.6 MB)
FPA-94-4 The Early Sun: Precursor to Helium and Neon Isotopes in the Earth; L.J. Wittenberg, July 1994 [oral presentation at the Eighth International Conference on Geochronology and Isotope Geology, June 5-11, 1994, Berkeley CA (also UWFDM-961)].
FPA-94-5 Non-Lunar 3He Resources; L.J. Wittenberg, July 1994 [presented at the Second Wisconsin Symposium on Helium-3 and Fusion Power, 19-21 July 1993, Madison WI; addendum added July 1994 (also UWFDM-967)].
WCSAR-TR-AR3-8705 Survey of Past Lunar Bases; T.M. Crabb and M. Jacobs, May 1987.
WCSAR-TR-AR3-8707 Preliminary Lunar Base Scenario Design; T.M. Crabb and M. Jacobs, July 1987.
WCSAR-TR-AR3-8708 Titanium in Lunar Regolith and Its Use in Mining Site Selection; E.N. Cameron, August 1987.