[Regnum] Scientists from China have come up with a way to deliver resources from the Moon to Earth. This is reported by the local publication South China Morning Post.
Scientists from the Shanghai Research Institute of Satellite Engineering have proposed building a magnetic launcher on the Moon, through which resources mined on the surface of the Earth's satellite could be delivered to Earth in the future. According to them, using the unique environmental conditions on the Moon, namely high vacuum and low gravity, payloads could be sent twice a day. The cost of transportation would be about 10% of the cost of existing methods.
“Since the installation will only consume electricity and will not require fuel, it will be quite small in scale and easy to implement,” the scientists said.
They noted that the main objective will be to extract Helium-3 to help solve the energy crisis on Earth. The project will contribute to the development of technologies for extracting minerals in space, as well as heavy launch vehicles and artificial intelligence.
According to the publication, the system itself is designed for a service life of at least 20 years, while its weight will reach about 80 tons, so in order to deliver it to the Moon, it will be necessary to wait for the Chinese super-heavy launch vehicle to start operating.
As reported by the Regnum news agency, on August 16, Roscosmos CEO Yuri Borisov allowed for industrial development of the Moon after the 2040s. He said that rare earth metals and helium are present in significant quantities among the minerals on the Moon.
On August 13, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, at a strategic session on the development of Russian space activities, announced that the federal project for the development of space nuclear energy will be aimed, among other things, at the production of means for the exploration of the Moon.