There have been a lot of interesting missions in outer space over the past decade ranging from experiments close to home on the International Space Station to missions to Mars, and much more.

With all these incredible things happening, one might wonder why humans aren’t returning to the moon.

Well, there are a number of missions from space agencies around the world to go back to the moon, including the Artemis mission from NASA, which hopes to set up a permanent colony.

What is the point of setting up a base on the moon?

Well, in addition to being really cool, the moon has an abundance of certain things that are useful and rare on Earth.

One of the most important of these is isotope helium-3, which scientists hope to use for nuclear fusion power plants in the future.

This isotope is so important that a team of Chinese scientists has made a proposal on how to get it back to Earth once it is mined.

The $18 billion proposal sets up a device with a 165-foot arm that rotates extremely fast before launching a capsule containing the helium-3 into space toward Earth.

This method would allow the capsule to travel at speeds greater than the 2.38 kilometers per second required to escape the moon’s gravity.

Needless to say, the device would have to do the precise calculations required to release the capsule at the right moment to ensure it not only escapes the moon’s gravity but also that it will come to Earth in the right place.

They don’t want it crashing down and causing damage.

China is not the only place that is looking to become the first to start mining helium-3 and sending it back to Earth. The United States is exploring options, and many private companies are also looking to get in on this potentially massive undertaking.

While it is certainly years away, mining for minerals on the moon is looking like it will be a huge business in the future.

Whoever can get the first mover advantage is likely to have significant control over it for generations to come.

Lunar mining might be the next gold rush.

If you thought that was interesting, you might like to read about a quantum computer simulation that has “reversed time” and physics may never be the same.