It look’s like the Russians have plans to build a moonbase, could this be the beginning of the planetary wars or space wars or why not Star Wars!<\/p>\n
RUSSIA is planning to mine a rare fuel on the moon by 2020 with a permanent base and a heavy-cargo transport link, a Russian space official says.<\/strong><\/p>\n
“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,” Nikolai Sevastyanov, head of the Energia space corporation, was quoted by ITAR-TASS news agency as saying at an academic conference.
\nThe International Space Station (ISS) would play a key role in the project and a regular transport relay to the moon would be established with the help of the planned Clipper spaceship and the Parom, a space capsule intended to tug heavy cargo containers around space, Mr Sevastyanov said.<\/p>\nHelium-3 is a non-radioactive isotope of helium that can be used in nuclear fusion.<\/p>\n
Rare on earth but plentiful on the moon, it is seen by some experts as an ideal fuel because it is powerful, non-polluting and generates almost no radioactive by-product.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n