They Are Building a Moon Catapult to Bring Energy to Earth

Bright Side

Imagine this: instead of rockets, scientists want to build a giant catapult… on the Moon. Sounds like pure sci-fi, but it’s real — and the goal is to launch materials straight from the lunar surface and beam clean energy back to Earth. If it works, we could power our world in ways we’ve only dreamed of. From solar farms on the Moon to futuristic space tech that could change everything, this project feels like the first page of a new chapter in human history. Want to see how a Moon catapult could flip our energy future upside down? You won’t want to miss this one.  Animation is created by Bright Side. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/   Check our Bright Side podcast on Spotify and leave a positive review! https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV   Subscribe to Bright Side: https://goo.gl/rQTJZz ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Our Social Media: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brightside Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brightside.official TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@brightside.official?lang=en   Stock materials (photos, footages and other): https://www.depositphotos.com https://www.shutterstock.com https://www.eastnews.ru ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This video is made for entertainment purposes. We do not make any warranties about the completeness, safety and reliability. Any action you take upon the information in this video is strictly at your own risk, and we will not be liable for any damages or losses. It is the viewer's responsibility to use judgement, care and precaution if you plan to replicate.

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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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