At 4:30 a.m. on November 24, 2020, at Wenchang space launch site, the Long March 5 launch vehicle successfully put the chang'e-5 probe into the predetermined orbit, which opened the first time for China to sample extraterrestrial objects. Chang'e-5 has brought us an important clean energy, helium-3.

Chang'e-5 is collecting lunar soil

Since the 1990s, human beings, including China, Israel, Japan, India and other countries, have set off a new round of lunar exploration climax. In this climax, a mysterious element has become the common goal of the world, which is helium-3

What is helium 3?

Helium-3 is an isotope of helium, containing two protons and one neutron. The high-energy helium 3, which was originally ejected from the solar wind. On the moon, where there is almost no atmosphere, the solar wind directly falls on the surface of the moon, accumulating over time. The content of helium-3 in the sand and rocks on the moon surface increases and becomes an important part of the lunar soil.

What can helium 3 do?

The most attractive thing about helium-3 is its excellent "potential" as an energy material. Deuterium and helium-3 can be used for nuclear fusion. This fusion does not produce neutrons, so the radioactivity is small, and the reaction process is easy to control, which can be regarded as pollution-free and safe. Helium-3 can be used not only in nuclear power plants on the ground, but also in space navigation as fuel for rockets and spacecraft. For every ton of helium-3 extracted from lunar soil, 6300 tons of hydrogen, 70 tons of nitrogen and 1600 tons of carbon can be obtained.

There is a lot of helium 3 on the moon

According to experts' calculations, if helium-3 fusion is used for power generation, only 25 tons of helium-3 will be consumed in the United States per year; in 1992, China only needs 8 tons of helium-3, and 100 tons of helium-3 will be enough in the world. Based on the current global electricity price and space transportation cost, the value of a ton of helium-3 is about 4 billion US dollars, and with the development of space technology, the cost of space transportation will definitely decrease greatly. Recently, French scientists announced that by 2030, nuclear fusion power generation using helium-3 will be commercialized. It is estimated that there are 3 to 5 million tons of helium-3 on the moon, which can support the earth's 7000 years of electricity!

In addition, helium-3 also has vast magical powers in military and medical fields. No wonder 1 gram of helium-3 is 30 times more valuable than 1 gram of gold!