ISRO sets an eye on the moon to mine energy

A scientist from Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) declared that the Indian space agency is working on a plan to extract energy from the moon that will help India to cut down on its oil imports.

According to Sivanthu Pillai, an ISRO scientist who earlier worked as the chief of the Indo-Russian venture, BrahMos Aerospace, said that all India's energy requirements could be met by Helium-3 mined from the moon.

"By 2030, the process target will be met", Pillai said at the three-day Observer Space Foundation-Kalpana Chawla Space Policy Dialogue in New Delhi, organized by Observer Research Foundation, a private think-tank.

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Pillai stated that the upper layer of the moon’s surface, Regolith, has abundant Helium 3 to meet the energy requirements of the entire planet and not just India. An isotope of Helium, Helium 3 can fuel nuclear reactors to provide an enormous amount of power without any harmful carbon emissions or radioactive products.

President Donald Trump-led administration in the US was also keen on extracting energy from the Moon. He had reportedly asked Nasa about mining the natural resources on the Moon for profit, to which, the space agency responded saying that they have already begun handing over low-Earth orbit explorations and tours to companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin.

With the expansion in space technology in many countries across the world, there has been a gush of activities aimed at exploration of natural resources of extra-terrestrial bodies, especially the Moon, given its close proximity to the Earth.

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