Russia Takes On The States
Updated: 08:23, Saturday January 28, 2006
Russia and the US are set for a re-run of the infamous space race to the Moon - but this time they plan to mine precious fuel when they get there.
The two superpowers want to dig for helium from a permanent base.
And Russia hopes to beat the US 2018 target to get there by three years, according to the Daily Mirror.
Helium-3 is considered to be the perfect nuclear fuel - just 25 tons of it could power the US for a year with almost no pollution or radioactivity.
The Earth has its own supply of the fuel but it cannot match the 500 million tons on the Moon.
Special bulldozers are being developed to work on the Moon and extract helium from the soil. It will then be shipped back to Earth.
Nikolai Sevastyanov, of Russia's Energia Space Corporation, said: "We plan to build a permanent base by 2015 and by 2020 begin the industrial scale delivery of helium-3."
Americans last stepped foot on the Moon in 1972 - but no Russian cosmonaut has ever made it.
http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30200-13499359,00.html?f=rss