Amazing facts from NASA


I am not making this up. I couldn't possibly make this up.


http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061103/FEATURES/611030306/1010

Friday, November 3, 2006
Back to the moon
U.S. eyes a lunar solution to energy problems
By Chris Poynter
cpoynter@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
The Courier-Journal

With the cost of gas hovering between $2 and $3 a gallon and the oil
supply declining, scientists at NASA have discovered a potential new
energy source -- helium-3.

When combined with water, the element creates energy.

"If you get a small amount of that material, an ounce, it's enough to
power our five biggest cities for five years," said NASA engineer
Donner Grigsby, who will speak at the University of Louisville Nov. 11.


There's just one problem. Helium-3 exists mainly on the moon.

That's one reason why the United States is eager, and is already
planning, to return to the moon, said Grigsby, whose 7 p.m. lecture at
the Rauch Planetarium is free and open to the public.

Grigsby will discuss NASA's current projects, as well as compare the
similarities between space travel and the trek of Lewis and Clark in
the early 1800s.

Lewis and Clark -- who explored the unmapped West, as commissioned by
President Thomas Jefferson -- had similar navigation systems as today's
astronauts.

They used the heavens.

"When we leave this planet, there is no such thing as GPS, so we are
navigating by the stars," Grigsby said.

Just as Lewis and Clark and their Corps of Discovery were funded by the
government, Grigsby said, so too is NASA.

"A lot of the public doesn't understand why we are interested in going
to the moon, other than a training ground for possibly going to Mars,"
he said. "There are minerals and resources there we are extremely
interested in, including helium-3."

Helium-3 is a naturally occurring element and, Grigsby said, NASA
didn't realize it had samples of it until 1986, when it re-examined
rocks brought from the moon.

Could the U.S. mine helium-3 and bring it to Earth?

"The question is ... what are the costs in real terms," Grigsby said.
"We think that the dollar we spend on power right now will cost about a
nickel if we fuel ourselves" using helium-3.

Grigsby said returning to the moon -- and potentially learning how to
live there -- creates a foundation for future long-distance travel,
including to Mars.

America hopes to return to the moon in about 2016, though other
nations, including Russia, are looking to land there sooner.

Grigsby, 48, is an engineer at Langley Research Center in Virginia. He
was named NASA's Speaker of the Year in 2004 and 2005.

"I seem to have the ability to put science in terms that people can use
it," he said.

Grigsby's lecture is sponsored by U of L and the Kentucky Historical
Society, as part of the bicentennial celebration of the Lewis and Clark
expedition.

Drew Foster, the planetarium director, expects Grigsby to attract a
crowd. The planetarium seats 160 and there is standing room for 200 in
the hallway, where a live video of Grigsby's speech will be broadcast.

Grigsby said he also plans to discuss NASA's other creations, including
the ion motor. It's an engine that accelerates so quickly in space,
picking up speed as it moves, that it creates artificial gravity.

Gravity, in turns, allows humans to travel more easily and safely and
to go greater distances.

Grigsby said most Americans don't understand the importance of NASA.
It's more than space travel, he said.

"The problems we solve in space have a direct spinoff on people," he
said.

NASA, for example, created battery-powered drills to use on the moon.
"Now, everyone has a battery-powered something in their homes -- drill
motors, saws," he said.

Even tennis shoes, with their rubber soles, are partly a NASA creation.
Before the 1960s, shoes were all leather and, often, not comfortable.

"We needed a booty to run around on the moon that wasn't a leather
shoe," he said. "NASA invented that technology for moon boots and the
spinoff was comfortable tennis shoes."

Reporter Chris Poynter can be reached at (502) 582-4475.

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