U.S.
AND RUSSIA WANT TO MINE FUEL
RUSSIA is planning to race
America to the moon - to mine precious superfuel. No Russian cosmonaut
has walked on the lunar surface, but Americans last went there
on Apollo 17 in 1972.
Both superpowers are planning
moon missions, but Russia hopes to beat the USA's 2018 target
by three years. They aim to set up a permanent base and dig for
helium-3. The substance is considered to be the perfect nuclear
fuel as just 25 tons could power the US for a year with virtually
no pollution or radioactivity.
There are few deposits
on Earth but about 500 million tons on the moon. Lunar bulldozers
will process 200 million tons of soil to extract one ton of fuel
- which is deposited by a wind of charged particles from the sun.
Space freighters will then
ship it back to Earth. Nikolai Sevastyanov, of Russia's Energia
Space Corporation, said: "We plan to build a permanent base
by 2015 and by 2020 begin the industrial-scale delivery of helium-3."
Russia has already approved plans to build£1 billion Kilper
"shuttles".
Stephen White / The Daily
Mirror (UK) : 28th January 2006.
