Elixir in Space: Chandrayaan-3 may hold key to India and world’s clean, green energy ambitions

India’s lunar dreams are moving ahead nicely with Chandrayaan-3, and it’s all set to make a soft landing on the Moon’s south pole, come August 23. Apathukatha Sivathanu Pillai, the former Chief Controller of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), spoke to the press recently and was feeling pretty hopeful about how things are going. He mentioned, “Having transitioned from a near 100 km orbit to 30 km, the descent to the moon is underway. I am confident it will achieve complete success,” in an interview with ANI. Chandrayaan-3 and India’s energy ambitions Pillai, who also held positions as the former CEO and MD of BrahMos Aerospace, really drove home the importance of Chandrayaan-3. He made it clear that this mission is a big deal, especially when it comes to figuring out what’s what on the moon – particularly in search of sniffing out Helium-3, which could be a gae changer in the energy industry, down the line. Helium-3 is an enhanced version of helium with one neutron and two protons around in its nucleus. Although it is not common on Earth, it is found in some trace amounts around natural gas spots. However, it is much more common on the Moon, and other solar stars, thanks to nuclear fusion reactions on them. Why Helium-3 is growing popular Helium-3 has captured a lot of attention because of its potential as a fuel for the next level of nuclear fusion reactions. Fusion is the same process that keeps stars, like our sun, shining. If we can achieve this Earth, we might just tap into an energy source that’s basically limitless and doesn’t come with the messy radioactive leftovers that today’s nuclear fission reactions leave behind. When we talk about fusion, most of the time we’re dealing with hydrogen isotopes like deuterium and tritium. But Helium-3 steps in with its cool neutron-and-proton combo. When mixed with deuterium, Helium-3 functions in a lot cleaner and safer manner than traditional fusion. A greener energy source with virtually limitless yield This makes it a greener choice for energy. And on top of that, they give out charged particles that can be turned directly into electricity. While Helium-3 has major potential for cleaner and greener energy, we’re not quite there yet, at least on Earth. The reactors that can pull off using this fusion are still in their lab phase, and they’ve got a bunch of hurdles to jump. People are really getting hyped about Helium-3 as an energy superstar, and that excitement has folks talking about digging it up from the moon. Turns out, the moon’s got a higher stash of Helium-3, all thanks to its face-off with the solar wind. This whole moon-mining idea is one of the big reasons why exploring the moon and checking out its resources, like Chandrayaan-3’s doing, is getting a lot of attention as a future energy solution.