XPost: sci.energy.hydrogen, sci.physics.fusion   
   From: g_d_pusch_remove_underscores@xnet.com   
   Copy: alexterrell@yahoo.com   
      
   alexterrell@yahoo.com (Alex Terrell) writes:   
      
   > Any idea who started this theory that He3 is easy to burn?   
      
   I don't think _anybody_ ever claimed it was "easy to burn" --- they merely   
   claimed that He3 and other so-called "advanced" fuels were _cleaner_ than D/T.   
      
   I suspect that this whole thing started out as a classic case of putting   
   the cart before the horse, by unimaginative people (possibly from NASA)   
   who started out from the assumption that going back to the Moon would   
   _ALWAYS_ be hideously expensive, and so therefore they needed to find   
   _some_ absurdly rare and even =MORE= expensive substance that was also   
   more abundant on the Moon than on the Earth to try and justify the trip.   
   Apparently, "Solar-wind implanted He3 for fusion reactor fuel" was the only   
   thing they could think of that had extremely low mass, extremely high value,   
   and was more abundant on the Moon than on the Earth (again supporting the   
   hypothesis that they not particularly imaginative people...).   
      
      
   > I know Zubrin did chapters on it in his book Entering Space. Is he guilty?   
      
   IIRC, it pre-dates Zubrin substantially. In fact, I vaguely recall that   
   it might even have appeared on a page or two of O'Neill's "The High   
   Frontier"...   
      
      
   -- Gordon D. Pusch   
      
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