Well my question is simple i guess, just i want know, is possible obtain helium only from the space? for example, just collect it with a special chamber? maybe this is stupid, but is this possible? or we need go to the moon and get it from there?
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asked Nov 5, 2020 at 19:01
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1$\begingroup$ It's totally up to you, but when you instantly accept the first short answer thats posted only hours after asking a question it discourages others from posting additional answers that you might also like to read, or even answers that disagree with the first one. I always try to keep my questions open for a few days at least to allow for the larger community to have a look and exchange ideas, and often to converge on a consensus. I also keep an eye on the voting, sometimes an answer looks good at first but after comments and down votes it later appears not to be so good. $\endgroup$– uhohCommented Nov 6, 2020 at 0:35
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$\begingroup$ @uhoh The answere is correct, thats why i accept it, i just was thinking, if i do a cubesat to collect Helium and then survive falling into the atmosphere? but probably this is stupid if i just collect few particles $\endgroup$– Valentino ZaffraniCommented Nov 8, 2020 at 22:20
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1 Answer
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That's how the Helium-3 on the Moon ended up there in the first place.
After billions of years of exposure to the solar wind, the surface has a few parts per billion of accumulated He-3.
You hypothetical space collectors extracting He-3 from the solar wind aren't operating at that sort of timescale. The solar wind contains a few thousand atoms per litre, and a vanishingly small portion of those atoms are He-3. You can count the individual atoms as they arrive, making this a very very inefficient collection strategy.
answered Nov 5, 2020 at 19:42
SE - stop firing the good guysSE - stop firing the good guys
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-1You can pour water into a glass for a billion years, but that doesn't mean it takes a billion years to fill it. Per this answer I think that "billions of years" is not the right expression to use in this answer, though "millions of years" might be. Also atoms per litre is not even relevant. You should consider flux (atoms per unit area per unit time) And rather than "vanishingly small" why not just state the measured fraction so we can judge for ourselves how small "small" is? $\endgroup$– uhohCommented Nov 6, 2020 at 0:41 -
$\begingroup$ I think you are being harsh @uhoh, the question was whether collecting helium-3 in space is a workable strategy, and this answers that question. $\endgroup$– GdDCommented Nov 6, 2020 at 8:10
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1$\begingroup$ @GdD The answer is supported by statements that are either off by several orders of magnitude or have the wrong dimensions, it's not being harsh to call attention to it. My down votes are few and far between and usually situations where they do little damage. This is a hastily-written answer based on wrong stuff, down voting is the required response. (this is the 2nd factor of 1000 error in as many weeks and a similar situation but different user). $\endgroup$– uhohCommented Nov 6, 2020 at 8:56
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$\begingroup$ @uhoh i cancel the aproval of the answere, if u have other idea, post it $\endgroup$ Commented Nov 8, 2020 at 22:21