Colonizing the Moon

Hosted byArt Bell

Colonizing the Moon

Highlights

  • Earth's Energy Crisis
  • Helium-3 Fusion
  • Solar Power & The Space Elevator
  • About the show

    Chip Proser, director of the documentary Gaia Selene, believes the Earth's future is in danger from climate change and energy crises. He maintains that colonizing the moon has the potential to mitigate these problems.

    "We've got to find alternate forms of energy," Proser stated, explaining that all of our earthly resources combined will not be able to provide for the world's energy needs in 50 years. According to Proser, a viable and abundant energy source awaits us on the moon in the form of helium-3. Proser said moon dust, which contains helium-3, could be refined on the moon and brought back to power fusion reactors on Earth. He estimates it would take only 25 tons (one space shuttle full) of helium-3 to power the entire United States for one year.

    Proser also envisioned living in lava domes under the surface of the moon, building lunar solar stations that could transmit "clean" power via microwave energy back to Earth, and using space elevators to place people and objects into space.