Helium is the second-most abundant element in the universe, but people who depend on the lighter-than-air gas are now fighting to get their hands on it. Michelle Miller reports.
Badly written. The main reasons are we're not capable of making it - there's a small percentage in gas deposits (very slow addition from decaying elements) and though a common element in space, it's one of the lightest elements with nothing keeping it down on Earth. Party balloons are one of the worst uses for it - we've usually used our own breath and made decent groups and tying it somewhere - keep themselves upright. Hydrogen bonds like crazy with heavier elements.
Not in all applications. And even if you can it would be much more expensive and inefficient than the current applications that require helium which will still impact consumer economics.
We will need to bring some back from the moon. This super light element escapes Earth's surface very easily. A moon transport ship could decend to earth and back with nothing but Helium.
