Leonids – Water on the Moon – Physical Equilibrium
The fun is streaming non-stop for enthusiasts of astronomy these days. This week the Leonid meteor shower is raging in conjunction with the new Moon. Estimates for the 2009 meteor event range upwards to 500 meteors an hour as the Earth finishes its annual pass through the tail of the Comet Tempel-Tuttle. Beginning around midnight this week look for the rising constellation of Leo and follow it across the sky into the dawn for the best chance to catch the most meteor activity.
As if 500 meteors/hour slamming into and burning up in the Earth’s atmosphere isn’t exciting enough, this week results are in from the NASA Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite or LCROSS experiment that crashed a satellite into a crater at the pole of the Moon to observe the spectroscopic results from the kicked up particulate. There is now evidence of more water on the surface of the Moon than previous direct observations have shown yet it is still relatively little.
More water on the Moon makes human habitation much more feasible. The question is: what is human habitation of the Moon good for? There are two main reasons; exploitative mining and/or establishing a launch site for deeper space exploration. More valuable to scientists than water on the Moon is Helium-3, which is super-rare on Earth, and exists on the Moon in relative abundance compared to Earth. Helium-3 is a stable element that is exceptionally valuable in nuclear technology. It allows a reaction to occur without turning components of a nuclear reactor radioactive, which is great for nuclear energy on Earth. Helium-3 is also optimal for use in nuclear fusion weaponry, hydrogen bombs, because it is stable and will not decay.
Nuclear weapons have shelf lives because they rely on radioactive elements that decay rendering them impotent over time. Helium-3 use in nuclear weaponry would mean that a nuclear weapon would have infinite shelf life (given infinite longevity of all other variables, which is improbable). Many scientists are not ignorant to the fact that every piece of technology that can be used for good can also be used for evil. Many scientists are or choose to ignore that fact for shortsighted personal gains. Habitation of the Moon and subsequent mining could potentially result in human kinds’ rapid exploration of deeper space and safer nuclear energy on Earth or it could result in more efficient weapons of destruction to wield over Earth. My observation is that for every helpful technology produced there is also produced an equal and opposite danger.
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