Concept image of Interlune's lunar excavator. Interlune
What if the future of clean energy and even the next leap in quantum computing relies on a gas that’s nearly absent on Earth but relatively abundant on the moon?
That gas is helium-3, and for the first time in history, a private company, Interlune, has not only figured out how to extract it from lunar soil but has also sold it twice. This Seattle-based startup, founded by former Blue Origin president Rob Meyerson, is opening a new chapter in space resource utilization.
Interlune has developed a prototype machine for extracting helium-3 from lunar soil and has already signed two sales agreements: one with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and another with quantum technology company Maybell Quantum.
The company claims it will begin supplying helium-3 to its clients by 2029, and each kilogram (~2.2 lbs) will cost a whopping US$20 million. One kilogram of helium-3 occupies a volume of roughly 7,400 liters of the gas when measured at standard temperature and pressure.
The working mechanism of Interlune’s lunar excavator
Helium-3 (He-3) is a non-radioactive isotope of helium that’s extremely rare on Earth, with only tiny amounts produced as a byproduct in nuclear reactors.
However, over billions of years, the moon’s surface has been slowly enriched with helium-3, thanks to solar winds continuously bombarding the lunar soil. Since the moon lacks a magnetic field to shield it from these winds, helium-3 keeps on accumulating in surface dust.
Interlune has developed a prototype lunar soil excavator capable of digging up to three meters deep in the lunar surface, where helium-3 is most likely to be found in higher concentrations.
The excavator can process up to 100 metric tons of regolith (moon dust) per hour, according to the company’s specs. Plus, it can separate helium-3 from other gases using a gaseous chemical process, designed to work in lunar conditions.
This prototype was built in collaboration with Vermeer, a company that specializes in manufacturing industrial excavation equipment. It is currently being tested in Earth-based simulations of lunar terrain.
An important point to note here is that Interlune won’t bring any lunar soil back to Earth. The excavator will extract and concentrate helium-3 directly on the moon, making the process much more practical and cost-efficient. Only the extracted helium-3 would then be sent back to Earth.
“Helium-3 is extremely light and extremely valuable, so in terms of stuff to bring back, it makes a lot of sense. It’s going to be a whole lot more economical to bring back helium-3 from the moon than to spin up dedicated reactors here on Earth to produce it,” Corban Tillemann-Dick, Maybell Quantum CEO, told Bloomberg.
Helium-3 promises a hi-tech future
Helium-3 is being studied as a fuel for advanced nuclear fusion reactors. Experts suggest that fusion using helium-3 would produce no radioactive waste and be much safer than current methods involving deuterium or tritium.
The gas is also essential for achieving ultra-low-temperature environments that could accelerate the practical deployment of quantum computers in industry and research.
“Helium-3 will fuel a fundamental transformation in computing. In the coming years, we’ll go from a few hundred quantum computers worldwide to thousands, then tens of thousands, and they all need to get cold. To get cold, they need dilution refrigeration running on helium-3,” Tillemann-Dick said.
The company will execute its helium-3 harvesting plan in three phases. The first, Crescent Moon, scheduled for late 2025, will send a hyperspectral camera as a rideshare payload to the lunar south pole to remotely identify regions with the highest potential for helium-3 deposits.
The second mission, Prospect Moon, will involve taking a lander to a selected site to conduct on-the-ground measurements using advanced sensors and demonstrate early-stage extraction technologies, confirming both the gas concentration and the feasibility of the extraction method.
The final mission, Harvest Moon, targeted for completion by 2029, will demonstrate the full extraction process on the Moon and return the harvested helium-3 to Earth, fulfilling the company’s contracts.
There are still many technical challenges that the company must overcome, but hopefully, it will succeed in all three phases and contribute to humanity’s dreams of achieving clear energy and large-scale quantum computing.