Resoruce from Moon and Energy Security of India

Development needs of developing countries have been recognized globally. Such development process will necessitate consumption of higher levels of energy. Energy is the prime mover of economic growth. Availability of energy with required quality of supply is not only key to sustainable development, but also the commercial energy has a direct impact and influence on the quality of service in the fields of education, health and, in fact, even food security. Inadequacy of energy supply would obviously affect very adversely these vital and essential requirements of any society. India’s per capita consumption of energy has been quite low, despite the fact that India is the sixth largest electricity market in terms of power generation. Per capita electricity consumption in India is only 615 Kwhr per year as compared to world average of 2516 Kwhr and 1585 Kwhr in China.
Over a period of time, when economy grows, industrial sector is bound to increase at a faster pace and thus with the change in sectoral composition, demand of electricity would grow at much faster rate. As noted economist Samuelson has said that ‘choices create its own preferences’. This is true in the context of Indian energy sector as well. Obviously, meeting such huge energy needs would call for exploitation of all available energy resources. Continued use of fossil fuels for meeting the energy needs has raised concerns about climate change and particularly global warming across the world. Given the fluctuation and volatility in oil prices and concentration of most of the world oil and gas resources in few countries, the depletion of natural resources like coal, accentuated the hunt for new energy sources.
There may be an opportunity for lunar resources to play a role in the energy industry here on Earth. Power generation is a vast and growing market. Energy is a product that may legitimately be worth bringing back to the Earth's surface from the Moon. A NASA report concluded that, for the energy needs of the next century, we need to consider two alternatives enabled by a lunar outpost: solar energy collected on the lunar surface and beamed back to Earth via microwaves, and the return to Earth of a light isotope of helium, He-3. Both of these options would largely avoid the biggest problems of energy generation here on Earth: pollution, acid rain, ozone generation, carbon dioxide production with its potential for global warming, and large operations with highly radioactive fuels.
"Just 25 tonnes of helium, which can be transported on a space shuttle, is enough to provide electricity for the US for one full year," Lawrence Taylor, director of the US Planetary Geosciences Institute, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences. Helium 3 is deposited on the lunar surface by solar winds and would have to be extracted from moon soil and rocks. To extract helium 3 gas the rocks have to be heated above 1,400 degs F. Some 200 million tonnes of lunar soil would produce one tonne of helium
Millions of dollars being spent in space missions to the moon is a strategic investment which will not only reap unimaginable benefits in the future, but may prove as a lifeline for the country to satisfy the needs of the world’s second largest population with limited natural resources. India’s energy sources at the present rate of consumption, which is nearly 20 times less than the developed countries, will only last for half a century.