Reuters is now reporting on China’s plan to explore and develop the moon:

Two Chinese astronauts orbited Earth for five days last month in the Shenzhou VI and China was now developing new craft up to the Shenzhou X, eyeing a permanent space station and an eventual moon mission, state media said this week.

“China will make a manned moon landing at a proper time, around 2017,” leading scientist Ouyang Ziyuan was quoted by the Southern Metropolis News as saying.

The project also includes setting up a moon-based astronomical telescope, measuring the thickness of the moon’s soil and the amount of helium-3 on the moon — an element some researchers say is a perfect, non-polluting fuel source.

Some scientists believe there is enough helium-3 on the moon to power the world for thousands of years. [via CNN, read more…]

The report does not mention the possibility of Russian involvement in China’s tentative plans for harvesting the moon, addressed previously on Phatic Communion.

Helium-3 is thought by some scientists to be the perfect fuel for the 21st Century; via Space.com:

“Helium 3 fusion energy may be the key to future space exploration and settlement,” said Gerald Kulcinski, Director of the Fusion Technology Institute (FTI) at the University ofWisconsin at Madison.

Scientists estimate there are about 1 million tons of helium 3 on the moon, enough to power the world for thousands of years. The equivalent of a single space shuttle load or roughly 25 tons could supply the entire United States’ energy needs for a year, according to Apollo17 astronaut and FTI researcher Harrison Schmitt.

Fusion powered by Helium-3 would be “extremely potent, nonpolluting, with virtually no radioactive by-product.” Successful harvesting of Helium-3 from the moon could lead to advances in propulsion technologies, too:

While offering the high performance power of fusion — “a classic Buck Rogers propulsion system” — helium3 rockets would require less radioactive shielding, lightening the load, said Robert Frisbee, an advanced propulsion engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena California. [ibid.]

Stories such as this are going to be more frequent in the future: Necessity is the mother of invention, and China has need to secure abundant supplies of energy which are not so dependent on geopolitical realities on Earth (such as the supply of oil.) Additionally, recent turmoil in the Chinese population is often a result of environmental concerns. [As addressed here.] Already, another recent report, from AFP via Yahoo, suggests that China may be focusing on the development of eco-friendly, self-subsistent cities for the future to combat overpopulation and pollution (and, in all likelihood, to combat civil turmoil): British engineers to help build ‘eco-cities’ in China.

Contrary to some popular analysis, China’s goal of superpower status may ultimately be achieved through technological advancement rather than military build-up — with all the attendant economic and diplomatic advantages of such advancement.