Week 9 Blog: Space and Art

This week, we learned about space and art, where technological advancements made regarding space inspired different artworks. One thing that stood out to me was a piece written by Lawrence Joseph, “Who Will Mine the Moon?”, which raises the question of whether mining the moon of a substance called Helium-3 will become the Persian Gulf of the 21st century, advancing the global economy (Vesna). 

Fig. 1: Moon mining machines

In his article, Joseph comments on how precious Helium-3 is, as it is safe to handle and can help our environment have cleaner air with its efficiency (Joseph). As these substances could have many uses to our society, it could be tested in different ways with different things creatively to improve our state of living (Spudis). In a way, extracting this substance could not only affect the global economy in the way of fuel, but when used creatively, it could be an art form to create many other substances that could improve our daily lives. 

Fig. 2: Helium fusion creating a carbon nucleus

In 2024, a company called “Two of Blue Origin” is planning to finally extract Helium-3 from the moon, bring it to Earth, and sell it for a profitable price (Berger). This could be useful as Helium-3 introduces a myriad of opportunities in the world that could help our world become a better place. From improving security to clean energy, to reducing the radiation of MRIs, this could be used as an art form to make a positive change in the world (Potter).

Fig. 3: Different uses of Helium


Works Cited

Berger, Eric. “Mining Helium-3 on the Moon Has Been Talked About Forever—now a Company Will Try.” Ars Technica, 13 Mar. 2024, arstechnica.com/space/2024/03/mining-helium-3-on-the-moon-has-been-talked-about-forever-now-a-company-will-try.

Joseph, Lawrence. “Who Will Mine the Moon?” The New York Times, 19 Jan. 1995, www.nytimes.com/1995/01/19/opinion/who-will-mine-the-moon.html.

Potter, Ned. “Interlune Aims to Mine the Moon for Helium-3.” IEEE Spectrum, 25 Mar. 2024, spectrum.ieee.org/moon-mining.

Spudis, Paul D. “Mining the Moon, Fueling the Future.” Smithsonian Magazine, 8 Jan. 2014, www.smithsonianmag.com/air-space-magazine/mining-the-moon-fueling-the-future-180948757.

Vesna, Victoria. “Lecture Part 5”


Image Citation

Aviva. “PPT - Star in a Box PowerPoint Presentation, Free Download - ID:1596136.” SlideServe, 10 July 2014, www.slideserve.com/aviva/star-in-a-box.

Coye. “PPT - Global Helium Supply Sustainable Helium Business Solutions PowerPoint Presentation - ID:2724803.” SlideServe, 31 July 2014, www.slideserve.com/coye/global-helium-supply-sustainable-helium-business-solutions.

Robitzski, Dan. “NASA’s Collaborating With Caterpillar on Moon Mining Machines.” Futurism, 24 Oct. 2019, futurism.com/the-byte/nasa-caterpillar-moon-mining-machines.

Comments

  1. jaelinchenDESMA9June 2, 2024 at 11:10 AM

    Hi Gillian! I really enjoyed reading your article. It is very interesting that people are looking at the space environment as the next source to be mined. I looked up the company and they had two commercial spacecraft launches earlier this year that both failed- one suffered a fuel look while the other came into the moon too fast and tipped over. Despite these fails, it really does seem like this is a feat we will most likely see accomplished in our lifetime. It makes me wonder how it will affect our society.

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