Existing Commercial Potential for Helium-3 from Luna

Forum: SSI-List
Thread: Existing Commercial Potential for Helium-3 from Luna

# 21380 byCharles F. Radley on Dec. 29, 2006, 9:26 p.m.
Member since 2022-08-22

>
> > $150M (for 100kg) is enough money that it is worth looking at
some
> > more and giving ti some real thought and analysis.
>
> That seems like a ridiculously low cost to me, if you're including
> launch costs. Please explain how you arrived at that figure.
>

Yes it is rather low by space standards today.

It is simply the current market price for 100 kg of He3.

It is about the same cost as a Proton launch.

Let us say we use a Zenith instead (e.g. via Sea Launch LLC), about
half the price, and half the payload of a Proton.

Could that land enough of a payload to start producing a few kg per
year of He3?

And what would be the cost of developing such a processing facility?