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| Edited By: Maitreyee Boruah |Source: DNA |Updated: Mar 11, 2018, 03:44 AM IST
In a significant step towards empowering India’s space technology, the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) is considering the use of robotic excavation to extract large scale helium-3 (He-3) deposits on the surface of the moon, said Dr G Madhavan Nair, former chairperson, Isro, on Thursday.
Nair was speaking on the historic discovery of water in the moon by Indian scientists at the inaugural session of the three-day global conference on cosmologies, ‘Perspectives of the Universe’.
“Finding water on the moon’s surface by Chandrayaan-1 is a great achievement for human civilisation. Besides that, Chandrayaan-1 also found large-scale presence of He-3 on the moon’s surface,” said Nair.
“Isro will use robotic excavation to extract He-3 in the future. Probably in the next 10-15 years, He-3, which is abundant on the moon’s surface, can solve the energy requirement of the human population on Earth,” said Nair.
The non-radioactive He-3 is regarded as having the potential to power future nuclear fusion reactors for hundreds of years. India’s first scientific mission to the moon— Chandrayaan-1—in October 2008, had identified deposits of He-3, along with the presence of water and other minerals, including iron and aluminium on the moon’s surface.
“During Chandrayaan-1, the mineral mapper had identified plenty of these areas where such compounds are present. We can further look for exact details of the quantity with our Chandrayaan-2 mission in 2013,” said Nair. Chandrayaan-2 is set to be launched by Isro in 2013.
The conference was organised by Srinivas Jyotish Vigyan Research Foundation, Tiruchirapalli, at National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS), Indian Institute of Science (IISc) campus and was inaugurated by chief minister BS Yeddyurappa.
“Cosmology, has its roots in ancient civilisations of the world. Bangalore is the hub of astronomical science and several other sciences. Cosmology has its importance for both scientists and philosophers,” said Yeddyurappa.
The themes at the conference include universe and the solar system, geocentric and heliocentric philosophy (locations of the planets, aspects, among others.
