00:00This catapult-like system on the Moon might bring us limitless energy. It's a launch system concept
00:14that was recently proposed by the Chinese scientists. It would work like a hammer throw,
00:19spinning a launch arm that flings objects. This arm is supposed to be about 165 feet long.
00:25It will accelerate until it reaches the Moon's escape velocity, and then whoosh! The capsule is
00:30sent into space. This crazy idea will cost around $18 billion. Ooh, pricey. But trust me,
00:38it's totally going to be worth it. The system would be powered by solar panels and nuclear energy.
00:43It could also recover more than 70% of the energy used after each launch. The Moon has a very weak
00:50gravity. There's also barely any atmosphere. So the air doesn't weigh you down. This makes it so
00:56much easier to launch stuff there. But why do we even need this? The main purpose is to transport
01:02helium-3. It's a really cool isotope of helium, and one of the most insane things about it is that it
01:09could become fuel for nuclear fission. This is the same process that happens in stars, including our sun.
01:15If we manage to recreate nuclear fusion here, on Earth, we can make it a clean and basically
01:25limitless source of energy for power plants. But helium-3 is super rare on Earth. We can sometimes
01:32find it in volcanic rock formations on the ocean floor. That's because it's a product of another
01:38rare element called tritium, the element we usually make in nuclear reactors and put in cool stuff like
01:44glow-in-the-dark paint. But the catch of tritium is that it takes forever to decay and turn into
01:50helium-3. Now, there's a bunch of helium-3 on the Moon, around 1 million tons. Just 20 tons of helium-3
01:58could meet China's yearly electricity needs. In fact, lunar soil has enough helium-3 to power the
02:04entire world for over a thousand years. But why is there so much of helium-3 on the Moon,
02:09and barely none on our planet? Well, that's because helium-3 comes from the Sun and travels
02:15in solar winds. Solar winds are like streams of dangerous particles. They're super radioactive.
02:21Our planet's thick atmosphere and magnetic fields serve as a shield for us. They almost fully protect
02:27us from those particles. But, unfortunately, they also prevent the good stuff like helium-3 from
02:33getting here. The Moon's atmospheric shields are super thin, though, so it's under a constant shower of
02:39solar winds. So, helium-3 accumulated there over billions of years, and now it's just scattered
02:45around there. But mining it and bringing it back to Earth is no easy feat. It's super expensive.
02:52Just think about it.
02:56Rockets need tons of fuel to break free from gravity. Every single bolt and screw on the spacecraft
03:02must be engineered to survive extreme conditions, like radiation. Not to mention, you need a team of
03:08rocket scientists, literally working around the clock to make sure nothing goes wrong. You can't
03:13call a repair guy if something breaks on the Moon. So, generally, it costs about a half a million dollars
03:19to send one pound of payload to our satellite. That's based on estimates from NASA. To get some idea,
03:25let's calculate how much it would cost to send an apple to the Moon. A typical apple weighs about 0.4 pounds.
03:32So, that funny mission would be at least $200,000. Now, for comparison, the Chinese launch system
03:39weighs around 80 tons.
03:43Another problem is that the lunar surface is pretty harsh on the equipment, like the freakish lunar dust,
03:49for example. You might recall this small thing that happened in the 60s called the Moon landings.
03:55But when the Apollo astronauts came back from the Moon, they found something weird was happening to
04:00them. Their throats were sore and their eyes watered. Luckily, it wasn't some scary moon sickness. Turns
04:06out, there's a lot of lunar dust clinging to their spacesuits. This dust seems harmless, but it's made
04:12up of sharp and abrasive particles, much smaller than a human hair, yet sharp like glass. It contains
04:18silicate, a thing that can cause severe lung problems on Earth and is a common issue for miners. So, it caused a
04:25lunar hay fever. At least, that's how NASA astronaut Harrison Schmidt called it.
04:33All 12 astronauts who walked on the Moon were then sneezing and experiencing nasal congestion.
04:38Sometimes, it took days to fade away. The dust even got inside their spacecraft,
04:43smelling like burnt gunpowder. This nasty stuff can be harmful to both humans and equipment. It managed to
04:49damage spacesuit boots and even ruined the seals on the containers used to bring back samples during the
04:55Apollo missions. As we've mentioned, they're glass-sharp and jagged. So, they start scratching,
05:01grinding, and wearing down any surfaces they come in contact with. They don't care if it's metal,
05:06glass, or humans. And since there's so much dust, this causes equipment to malfunction and fail quite
05:13quickly. And that's just one of the possible hurdles with lunar missions. So scientists really need to
05:18come up with some weird ideas to get that precious helium-3.
05:25The Chinese scientist project looks like a weird sci-fi invention, but it's a cost-effective way to
05:30transport materials back to us. It could throw stuff to Earth twice a day, and it would be 90%
05:36cheaper than current methods. Since it only needs electricity and no fuel, the system would be small
05:42and easy to set up. Besides the beloved helium-3, this catapult would also help advance technologies
05:49in space mining and heavy launch vehicles. No lunar dust scares this thing. It should last for at least
05:5520 years. It would need to be transported to the Moon using China's super-heavy-lift rocket.
06:04But the idea is far from new. There was a novel called The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A.
06:10Heinlein. In the story, there's a lunar colony that uses an electromagnetic catapult
06:16to send weed and water ice back to Earth. It gets quite wild when the colonists,
06:20known as loonies, eventually take control of this catapult. They threaten to launch rocks at Earth,
06:26unless their colony is recognized as an independent world. Sounds kind of funny, but a large rock,
06:32if thrown at us from the Moon, could wipe out a city. The damage would be like from a meteorite strike,
06:38with fires, houses destroyed, and worse. But scientists have been talking about this catapult
06:44idea for a while. For decades, they were trying to find a way to use electromagnetic systems
06:49to send resources from the Moon to Earth. There are also some challenges. For example,
06:56scientists forgot to mention how exactly helium-3 would be extracted from the lunar soil. Installing
07:02this launch system on the Moon's rugged surface would be difficult as well. Also, they would need
07:07to make sure that the system remains stable at high speeds, and that it could withstand the Moon's
07:13extreme temperature changes, cosmic rays, and intense solar radiation. So, it would take some time to
07:19develop. China hopes to have the key components of the system ready by 2030. The full-scale operations
07:25might start by 2045. China has tons of plans for the Moon. For example, they want to build a research
07:34station at its south pole by 2035. But China's not the only one in this space race. Considering that
07:41NASA plans to send humans on Mars by that time, oh boy, the 2030s will be a crazy decade for space exploration.
07:48There's also an American startup that's part of the lunar economy. The ones that plan to land astronauts
07:56on the Moon have people actually living on our satellite in a decade or two. One of the goals of
08:01this colony is to boost economic growth and create new jobs. Most of them will likely involve some mining
08:07activities. And if there'd be two space colonies, well, they'll have to figure something out.
08:13That's it for today. So, hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like and share
08:21it with your friends. Or, if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the Bright Side!
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