A Trip to the Moon

A Trip to the Moon (French: Le Voyage dans la lune) is a 1902 French black-and-white silent film by Georges Méliès. It was extremely popular at the time of its release, and is the best-known of the hundreds of fantasy films made by Méliès. A Trip to the Moon is considered the first science fiction film with its use of innovative animation and special effects. It is based loosely on two popular novels of the time: Jules Verne's From the Earth to the Moon and H. G. Wells' The First Men in the Moon. The film depicts six brave astronomers who build a space capsule and a huge cannon which shoots them into space. On the moon the astronomers find the unexpected.

The Last Question

The last question was asked for the first time, half in jest, on May 21, 2061, at a time when humanity first stepped into the light. The question came about as a result of a five dollar bet over highballs, and it happened this way:

Alexander Adell and Bertram Lupov were two of the faithful attendants of Multivac. As well as any human beings could, they knew what lay behind the cold, clicking, flashing face -- miles and miles of face -- of that giant computer. They had at least a vague notion of the general plan of relays and circuits that had long since grown past the point where any single human could possibly have a firm grasp of the whole.

Continue reading The Last Question by Isaac Asimov or hear it spoken below.

It is interesting to note that different versions of this story I have encountered state the the sun will burn for ten billion years or 20 billion years. The written story above says twenty while the spoken story says ten. I don't know what the original version said (does anyone out there?). Perhaps this reflects our changing understanding of our sun which suggests that ten billion years is more appropriate.

Imagine the next 60 years

Futurism is an endeavor fraught with speculation. This is an inescapable fact. Many people, myself included, like to think about the future and wild things like space travel or exotic space ships, but this thinking is too often aimed at tangible objects and fiction. What we need is a frame work for thinking about the future that involves the most important factor and that is people. Consider the future in terms of the human development index versus planetary health. Consider how the future might be and what we want the future to be like. This is a refreshing approach to futurism because rather than an obsession with a singular aspect of the future, like the singularity, we are encouraged to make a plan for what to do with the wild technologies we may or may not obtain. Here is Dr. Chris Luebkeman with four predictions for Earth's future.

The Moon, where the Helium-3 from the Sun is

Moon is a 2009 science fiction film about astronaut Sam Bell who is the solitary worker on the moon. Sam is at the end of a three-year stint on the Moon so the film begins as if it was the denouement of another quieter story. When an accident occurs Sam suddenly meets himself for the first time.

I am adept at finding flaws in science fiction films, but Moon nails a lot of science as well as could be expected. The most incredulous point about the film for me was the lack of a radio array on the far side of the moon, I mean why else would we go to the moon? There is a very good and scientifically feasible answer for this. The movie begins, as you can see above with the first seven minutes of the film, with a commercial by Lunar Industries:

There was a time when energy was dirty word, when turning on your light was a hard choice. Cities in brown out, food shortages, cars burning fuel to run, but that was the past, where are we now? How did we make the world so much better? Make deserts bloom? Right now we're the largest producer of fusion energy in the world. The energy of the sun trapped in rock harvested by machine from the far side of the moon. Today we deliever enough clean burning helium-3 to supply the energy needs of nearly 70% of the planet. Who would have thought all the energy we ever needed, right above our heads? The power of the moon, the power of our future.

When I saw this at the beginning of the film I was delighted that they had based the story on a kernel of truthful science. The energy source they are gathering from the moon is Helium-3 (³He), but they aren't exactly burning it for fuel as they say. Helium-3 is a light isotope of helium with two protons and one neutron which is suitable as a fusion fuel. I have done some research into the literature to determine just how feasible this ³He mining on the moon is with two specific questions in mind. Why use ³He? Why go to the moon?

An advanced fusion reactor would combine ³He and deuterium (²H) in a fusion reaction to produce a helium-4 nucleus (⁴He) and a high-energy proton. Energy is released as charged particles and that is what powers the world in this science fiction vision of the future. ³He fuel offers some advantages over other types of fusion fuel because it is efficient and because less radioactive byproducts are produced (it is often stated or assumed that fusion power does not create any dangerous materials, but in reality the reactor housing can become radioactively activated and remain so for a number of years. However, the time scale on which it remains active is comparable to human lifetimes and is overall not as dangerous as the byproducts of fission reactors). ³He is very scarce on earth. It is possible to manufacture ³He on earth though the neutron bombardment of certain elemental targets which results in tritium, which then decays to ³He with a half-life of 12 years. This is a complicated, dangerous and inefficient process so other sources would be required to make ³He a viable fusion fuel.

The cosmological abundance of ³He is paltry, but its abundance and chemical evolution is of interest to astronomers because it can be a tracer of various stellar phenomena so it has been studied for many years. The primordial cosmological ratio of ³He to ⁴He is ~1.4 × 10 ^-6, however this abundance can be thousands of times greater in the solar wind. The solar wind is primarily protium traveling at a velocity of ~450 km/s with a flux of ~6 × 10 ¹⁰  ions/(m² s). Of this flux there is ~4% He which has an unusually high ratio of ³He to ⁴He of ~480 atomic parts per million (Heber V. 2003). ³He should be abundant on the moon's surface of regolith where it has been deposited by solar wind over billions of years.  Hence, we could go to the moon and mine it. However, to gather enough fuel to power the earth at current energy consumption rates more than one Space Shuttle load and the processing of 4 million tons of regolith per week, on the lunar surface, would be necessary. Further, to really nail the science here I cite Fa and Jin who state:

The [lunar] inventory of ³He is estimated as 6.50×10⁸ kg, where 3.72×10⁸ kg is for the lunar nearside and 2.78×10⁸ kg is for the lunar far side.

There is a bounty of lunar fuel available, but I wouldn't place my base on 'the far side of the moon' as Lunar Industries states they have done because it would be cold, there is less ³He, and it would be, well, lonely. In conclusion I have found the academic literature validates the idea that Helium from the moon could power terrestrial fusion reactors one day.

Apparently Sam Bell is working alone on the moon to cut costs for the company. In order to mine the necessary amounts of ³He with minimal overhead costs Lunar Industries has chosen a one man job; and based on the size of the lunar regolith harvesters seen in the movie 4 million tons processed per week would not be unfeasible. As the movie continues themes of alienation and societal deception emerge. I have discussed some science that the film never divulges, but in fact, the film never even mentions anything about ³He or the reasons why any of this is going on again. This is a strong point for the film which actually raises deep philosophical questions, which I could dive into, but I don't want to spoil it for anyone. It is a great film and not the craziest science, really:

Online resources:
Mining the Moon from Popular Mechanics
Lunar ³He and Fusion power by J. Santarius
Non-Lunar  ³He Resources by L. Wittenberg
Moon for Sale from the BBC

References:

FA, W., & JIN, Y. (2007). Quantitative estimation of helium-3 spatial distribution in the lunar regolith layer Icarus, 190 (1), 15-23 DOI: 10.1016/j.icarus.2007.03.014

Heber, V., Baur, H., & Wieler, R. (2003). Helium in Lunar Samples Analyzed by High‐Resolution Stepwise Etching: Implications for the Temporal Constancy of Solar Wind Isotopic Composition The Astrophysical Journal, 597 (1), 602-614 DOI: 10.1086/378402

Saturn 3

In an isolated sector of our solar system suspended in orbit from the sixth planet from our sun lies a distant outpost. A technologically perfect world where mistakes are impossible because the impossible is unthinkable. It is called Saturn 3...

I haven't seen Saturn 3, but it sure looks like fun. I also just mentioned the science fiction gem Missing Pages a little while ago, but I forgot to mention what got me started thinking about alternative film. It was the Seattle International Film Festival, SIFF. It has been going on at a hand full of theatres across Seattle since May 21st and ends June 14 (and no it doesn't have any particular focus on science fiction, that is just me). There are lots of intriguing science fiction films out or coming out now, but I don't think any of them can match Saturn 3 at least as a candidate for Mystery Science Theatre 3000.