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Space Race Now

I've always felt that China had alternative motivations to their space program, other than just planting a flag on the moon.

While Western media's reaction to China's space aspirations has largely been nonchalant-"been there - done that", I strongly suspect that China is striving to become the new "Saudi Arabia of the 21st century" -not with oil, but with Helium-3 [HE-3], mined on the moon and brought back to earth.

Stacey Solomone, a Ph.D. student at the Future Studies program at the University of Hawaii supports my conjecture. In a paper published in the current Futures Research Quarterly-- China's Space Program: Tang and Tea Together at Last, Stacey speculates:

"China's lunar project can incorporate the mining of Helium-3 (HE-3) as a new, clean, efficient, safe and cheap nuclear fusion fuel. The foreign sales and internal uses of HE-3 will help offset the high price of maintaining a lunar base."

Scientists have known since 1998 about the abundance of HE-3 on the moon, when researchers from two universities in Arizona and Hawaii produced the first maps of the moon's resources in a paper entitled: "Estimated Solar Wind-Implanted Helium-3 Distribution On The Moon."

"The mineral ilmenite [FeTiO3], or iron titanium oxide, retains helium much better than other major lunar materials, [such as titanium dioxide (TiO2)]. The older soils should be better sources of helium-3, says the report, because they have been exposed to the solar wind longer and contain greater amounts of fine-grained aggregates that absorb helium-3. Also, solar wind-implanted particles are more abundant on the far side, because the Earth shields the Moon's near side from the solar wind for a portion of each solar orbit."

"The scientists estimate that the greatest amounts of helium-3 will be found on the far side maria, or "seas," of the Moon, due to the higher solar wind, and in nearside areas with high concentrations of titanium dioxide [TiO2]. Their hypothesis is based on analysis of rock samples brought back by Apollo astronauts and mineralogical maps produced by the Clementine spacecraft."

Oxygen, needed to maintain a lunar habitat ,seems not to be a problem either. The current issue of Science News reports that the same mineral - ilmenite can be used to generate oxygen to sustain human exploration and mining.

Impacts:

In April 2004, several planetary scientists testified before the US House Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics in a hearing called: "Lunar Science & Resources: Future Options." The subcommittee was studying the feasibility of lunar-based scientific and commercial activities.

Challenges:

Researchers noted however that several technical problems must be solved before helium mining will become economically feasible.

Trend:

So the new [HE-3] space race is off and running.

ETA:

2009 March- Lunar rover returns to Earth with samples and marks successful completion of Chang's Project

2009 July-China launches three more lunar rovers to the moon and deposits more modules for future base.

2009 July-China begins exploiting HE-3 collected from lunar rovers.

Unilat Key

Unilateral space exploration is key multilateral approaches fail

Stone 11 - space policy analyst and strategist near Washington, DC. ( 5/16/2011, Christopher, space policy analyst and strategist near Washington, DC., http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1843/1,bs)
Many experienced American space professionals, with knowledge of international space cooperation and policy, understand the importance of shaping the strategic space environment to benefit US vital interests. Many in the space community wish to get past the perceived international angst that followed the release of the 2006 space policy while maintaining good rapport with our allies. However, a new US national space policy needs to follow the lead of the Europeans and declare the goals and objectives for the development of American leadership through increased capability, ambitious space objectives, innovation, and global competitiveness of our space industrial base. International cooperation, as the Europeans note, should be best articulated in appropriate bilateral and multilateral agreements and not in a national space policy. The 2010 US national space policy, while containing many good things, reads more like an international statement of principles than a national strategic document.

Rather than using language like “collective assurance”, “collective self-defense”, and “interdependence”, and emphasizing a policy of reliance of foreign space capabilities, Europe is pursuing a course of “independence” and “increased European capability” to achieve excellence and increased status for the advancement of European space efforts. In addition, unlike US policy, the European policy omits arms control and “risk sharing among… international partnerships.” This poses some concern for many US space policy makers and influencers. It demonstrates that despite all the writings about how Europe decided on this course because of the 2006 policy, there really is no reason for the EU to pursue a counter to the United States’ vision for collective assurance in space, unless the Europeans wanted to pursue this policy of independence of their own free will. In fact, it seems the Europeans have written a policy similar to the 2006 US policy they rejected internationally, not the 2010 exposition they supported with equal vigor.
Unilateral Action is key

Stone 11 - space policy analyst and strategist near Washington, DC. ( 5/16/2011, Christopher, space policy analyst and strategist near Washington, DC., http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1843/1,bs)
As the US current space policy notes, every nation has the right to access and use space. Each nation has the right to develop its own nationally-focused “unilateral” space policies that serve to advance their vital interests in security, prestige, and wealth as the baseline for any international cooperation they choose to support. Failure to invest in bold, ambitious space efforts with a national tone (in all sectors) in space will not only hurt the US space industry, but will harm our nation’s ability to advance its global interests in space, impact our traditional vital interests of independence and achievement, and threaten the very preeminence that we have labored so hard to achieve over the past fifty years. If our goal is the advancement of a global exploration program in space, then fine, but the US needs to observe that other nations and partnerships such as the EU and Russia appear to be taking an alternate path toward increased domestic space capabilities and expanded infrastructure for national interests. They are pressing ahead with their goals to step into the vacuum of leadership that the US is allowing through the shutdown of US programs, abandoning capabilities, and allowing the loss of large numbers of skilled space workers. Our next space policy and strategy, while including international efforts of mutual benefit, should focus on advancing American capability and enable a long range strategy for exploration and enhanced military capabilities in space, just as our friends the Europeans are pursuing.

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