Who will lay hands on him first? Find the legendary treasures of the moon

The Moon hides many valuable treasures: rare earth minerals, frozen water deposits, and helium, an invaluable source of energy. It is no wonder that the fierce competition has begun to get.

• And by 2025, the United States plans to send a man to the moon again through NASA’s new Artemis program.
• India recently landed its Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft near Manzinus Crater, near the South Pole.
• Russia had hoped to survey the Boguslavsky crater area before the Luna-25 probe crashed earlier this month.
• China plans to send astronauts (Chinese astronauts) to the surface of the moon by 2030, and has identified a number of landing sites similar to the US space agency, which foreshadows a possible conflict.

Countries interested in global space exploration have not yet reached an agreement on the “division” of the moon. But what are these countries, as well as a number of private companies, doing on the moon? Let’s review the most important treasures again.

water

Thanks to analysis by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft, experts believe there are more than 600 billion kilograms of water ice in the corners of the Moon, enough to fill at least 240,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools. Given that there are more than a billion cubic kilometers of water on Earth, It may seem strange to think that A Water is one of the most important resources on the MoonThey are often found in craters to the left of the South Pole and to the right of the North Pole.

Well, the water on the moon can be considered an almost invaluable resource for the future of our civilization because it holds potential for exploration of other planets.

The reason for this is that because of its weight, it is very difficult to transport a lot of water from Earth to space. Sending one cubic meter of water to space alone would cost about 450 million HUF.

This means that access to water already in space would be invaluable, not only for astronauts to drink and wash, but also for transporting them to distant planets in the solar system.

Moreover, since a water molecule is composed of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom, it contains the liquid oxygen and hydrogen needed to make rocket fuel.

This rocket fuel could then be used, for example, to launch a human spacecraft from the Moon to Mars and beyond. Transformation From the Daily Mail compilation.

minerals

Scientists believe that many rare earth elements may be hiding in the cold and dark craters in the south pole of the moon, such as Shackleton, Shoemaker, Gerlach and Haworth.

These metals are vital in emerging technologies as well as in smartphones, computers, hybrid car batteries, and medical equipment.

According to experts, rare minerals found in large quantities on the moon include: scandium And yttriumWhich can be used in vehicle engines, the manufacture of glass or ceramics, the production of electronic devices and radar systems. Other resources include Basalt, iron, quartz and siliconWhich can all be used for windows, stoneware, and solar cells on the ground, while including electronic precious metals platinum, palladium and rhodium. Scientists are like that Titanium oreIt has also been discovered, and it is ten times richer than what is found on Earth.

helium

Nuclear fusion is considered a potential alternative to fossil fuels on Earth and is considered the “Holy Grail” of energy. Scientists hope to mimic the way the sun produces energy by converting hydrogen into helium. One way to do this is to combine a rare form of hydrogen (called deuterium) that can be extracted from seawater with an even rarer form of helium known as helium-3. The latter is extremely rare on Earth, but in some parts of the Moon, including the Sea of ​​Tranquility, helium-3 is present in the surface matter at a concentration of 20 parts per million.