Russia has staked out plans to recapture its Soviet-era space-race glory and start mining the Moon for a promising energy resource that scientists say could meet the Earth's power needs for more than a thousand years. Nikolai Sevastyanov, head of Russia's giant Energia Space Corporation, has unveiled plans to build a permanent base on the Moon within a decade and to start mining the planet for helium 3, a sought-after isotope, by 2020.The idea would be to use helium 3 to power thermo-nuclear power stations, harnessing its potency to achieve nuclear fusion.The technology to exploit helium 3 is still under development, but it has been touted by a significant academic school of thought as "the ideal fuel of the future" with several countries expressing interest. The race is now on to be the first to make it work.Russian scientists have come up with the idea of using "lunar bulldozers" to heat the Moon's surface in order to get at the resource, and Mr Sevastyanov has told an academic conference that Moscow is keen to institute regular cargo flights of helium 3 back to Earth as soon as possible.

His heavily state-controlled firm, one of the most powerful in the Russian space sector, is already drafting plans to turn the base and mining proposals into reality. Russia's new space shuttle Klipper would play a significant role in the project, as would the International Space Station."We are planning to build a permanent base on the moon by 2015 and by 2020 we can begin the industrial-scale delivery ... of the rare isotope helium 3," Mr Sevastyanov said.

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Wait till they get too greedy or mine off parts of the moon that could help science. I don't think anybody should mine the moon.

wow...I agree with Kratos mining the moons bad.

the moons a planet now?

If I were the US I would counter by constructing a spacecraft launch pad on the dark side of the moon ---> The advantages of this are a 400,000 km savings on fuel & 1/3 the propulsion req'd for lift off

Needs to be an international law on the environmental protection of planets and satellites (A.K.A: Moons) I can understand mining it a little to find what it contains within the core but that's all.

This reminds me of the movie The time machine, I don't think mining it is a good idea and the moon isn't their property.

what the hell is it with humans and destroying planets by mining them out and polluting them?

you'd think they'd have learned something new by 2006

and why aren't scientist focusing on recreating COLD FUSION..they did it once, they can do it gaain...COLD FUSION is the answer to Earth's energy problems..

*twitches and deals with human society anyways*

Ummmm.... science over needed resources? What the hell. I think we need to deal with here and now. We'd be better off with getting rosources that may help save lives and make things cheaper for us instead of some experiment that might not even help us with things we NEED. I'm not talking about how we got here, we don't NEED to know that, but what we do need is these resources.

Well although I`m all for getting back up to the moon and for a peacful space race to begin. I seriously doubt that Russia will be getting to the Moon as quickly as they have stated. It seems to me that they are being very optimistic with that timescale. Although if NASA do get the required funding for their moon mission then the Russian government may get really serious about it and make that timetable possible.

Only time will tell though.

I agree with you Nadal, Mine it just to see whats up their. Possibly an international team to work together, then if there is something their we all could reep the benefits?

(Thinks..........what am I talking about, an international team! That would never work!!......Stupid me!!:wacko: )

Awesome! But unlikely... Anyways, now Russia and China have plans for Lunar bases, whilst America slumbers on and on. Who will reach the moon first this time?

I was thinking of Time Machine too, they are like OMFG THE MOON IS COMING DOWN we are teh sux.

I hope they wage a war on the moon and we can all watch peacfuly from down here.

A new race begins - Whoever gets there first controls the economey for the next hundred years.

A question for the space-brains...surely there will be legal and technical issues to be dealt with, seeing as past treaties dictate no country shall claim the moon or any other lunar surface...?

if the resources on the moon are plentiful enough i fear wars will break out for control over it. no doubt

Surely the biggest technological problem is ensuring that the project is energy efficient. How do they plan on powering all the equipment in the space stations, for mining, to survive the astronauts, bring back the "fuel"... seems stupid to me...

[attachmentid=23212]Maybe Virgin Galactic will get there first, and get control over the moon.
Then we might see the moon turn into a resort / space port instead.

By the way who does have rights to the moon, as I have seen on one site that people are buying land on the moon. America might have claimed to been there first, and stuck in a flag, but does that give them the rights to claim it. All I can think of is that whoever actually has a base there will control the moon, but then someone else will build a base, then we have a problem of dividing up the moon. Unless a war breaks out over it, there could be a dozen different mine sites on the moon or more, by russia, usa, china, india, etc, etc. Then the moon could be divided up like Europe, what detrimental damage will happen then? I think we should study the the moon, do core samples and all that, but keep it as a space port not an open cut mine or underground mine. If we affect the moon in any way it will have a major effect on the earths stability.