The ever evolving role of Helium 3

All I wanted was an examination of the results of a (pretty unlikely to ever happen) terraformed Moon. Is that so much to ask for?

(Maybe they can also bring back some of the helium3 we know is there. Here on Earth we’re short on helium3, which would be a key ingredient for future fusion plants.)

Ah.

By Gregory Benford

There's the problem.

Aside from the 3He comment, Benford does not talk about one interesting issue with the moon, which is that impactors can blast material off the surface comparatively easily thanks to the low escape velocity and some (small) fraction of the debris will end up on Earth. All other elements being equal, the bigger the impactor, the more debris reaches Earth and " 100 comets the size of Halley's" would each be about fifty times the size of the object that created Bruno, IIRC, and since there would be 100 of them, the total mass of the debris that reaches the Earth would be 50 billion tonnes, unless mitigating steps are taken.

Just spit-balling, maybe each object could pull a similar trick to the one suggested for captured objects and show up in a pair. If you play the gravitational interaction right, one object can end up moving comparatively slowly wrt the capturing body while the other is flicked into oblivion. Do make sure the Earth and the body flicked into oblivion do not intersect.

(For comparison that would be something like 60,000 the amount of astronomical debris that falls on Earth each year)

Also, I have to wonder what being next to an object shedding 1/tens of thousands of its atmosphere each year would be like.

New Celebrations by Alexei Panshin

One reason I don't get all het up about how slowly new installments in the serial of The Knights Who Say Fuck are coming out is because I don't read that series but a more important one is because I have been waiting for more installments in the Anthony Villiers series for most of my life; mere half decades between volumes do not compare. I discovered Panshin's light-hearted (or at least seemingly light-hearted) series when I was 17. I am no longer 17. I do not have in my possession the fourth or subsequent books in this series and as long as I don't have them I do not have the spoons to spare for lesser series. But I am not bitter because I do have the first three and those three are treasures. ( Read more... )

AaaaAaAaUuuuUuuuuuugggGGGGhhhhhhhhhhh!

You know what hasn't survived 40 years and nine moves?



I was so sure I had a copy.