Highs and lows<\/p>\n
\u201cHelium-3 has been bombarding the surface of the moon for billions of years,\u201d Meyerson told SpaceNews. \u201cOver geologic time, meteorite impacts on the lunar surface have stirred up the fluffy regolith, with Helium-3 being distributed down to 3 meters [10 feet] in depth. That\u2019s the depth that Jack Schmitt and two other crews got,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Schmitt, a geologist who walked on the moon during Apollo 17, is executive chairman of Interlune, founded in 2020 to harvest lunar resources.<\/p>\n
Helium-3 now commands a stable price of around $20 million per kilogram, said Meyerson. Interlune is sharply focused near-term on extracting Helium-3 for superconducting quantum computing applications. The Helium-3 itself is used to cool the devices to as close a temperature to absolute zero as possible. \u201cQuantum computing is the key demand generator for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meyerson explained that Helium-3 could also fuel nuclear fusion reactors on Earth \u2014 a use that Schmitt has championed in the past, though investors have shown little interest, prioritizing other applications such as quantum computing that would yield faster returns.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have ways we can go meet that need in the future,\u201d Meyerson said, in addition to mining the moon for water, propellant, and industrial metals for in-space applications. Helium-3 can also be used in medical imaging purposes and radiation detecting technology.<\/p>\n
Meyerson envisions meeting the demands of these industries by eventually harvesting and returning to Earth tens of kilograms of Helium-3 per year, he said, \u201cand at that price and at the quantities we can produce, we think that\u2019s sustainable.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDemand is growing and every quantum computer company we talk to recognizes the need and the future demand. That demand is going to start to come in the three-to-seven-year time frame,\u201d said Meyerson. \u201cAnd that\u2019s why we think the time is now to go do this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meyerson said that, despite the uneven distribution of luanr Helium-3, the company has ideas of where they should target based on data from NASA\u2019s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.<\/p>\n
Meyerson declined to say where on the moon Interlune is targeting for competitive reasons, sharing just that it was near the equator. Meyerson added that Interlune won\u2019t target the comparative abundance of Helium-3 in permanently shadowed regions near the moon\u2019s south pole due to the difficulties of operating in that environment.<\/p>\n
However, Laszlo Keszthelyi, a research geologist and lead spokesperson on lunar resources for the USGS Astrogeology Science Center in Flagstaff, Arizona, is less optimistic that lunar Helium-3 is as easily available for harvesting as Interlune would like.<\/p>\n
Keszthelyi recently led a USGS assessment of lunar resource exploration that classified lunar Helium-3 \u201cas an inferred unrecoverable resource\u201d \u2014 it\u2019s present, thanks to solar wind, but there\u2019s a paucity of measurements to support its viability as an extractable resource.<\/p>\n
Keszthelyi told SpaceNews that lunar regolith brought back during Apollo missions contained very small concentrations of Helium-3 ranging from 2.4 to 26 parts per billion, he explained.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to process somewhere between 100,000 to 1 million tons [of regolith] to get a kilogram [of Helium-3], but it is there and it is measurable,\u201d Keszthelyi said. \u201cWe do mining operations on Earth, such as copper mines that, in terms of size, are even larger.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAs an agency, we like to provide reliable information and let other people do what they are going to do with that information,\u201d Keszthelyi said. \u201cThere are resources on the moon. It\u2019s a question of how you want to use those resources.\u201d<\/p>\n
Step-by-step<\/p>\n
Interlune is now blueprinting<\/a> a resource development mission, planned for 2027, to measure the concentrations of Helium-3 at a future harvesting site on the moon and test out extraction on a small scale. Interlune CTO Gary Lai previously predicted that Interlune would return only \u201csingle digit to 20 kilograms of product back to Earth within the early years of our operation.\u201d That would be followed in 2029 by the establishment of a pilot plant on the moon \u201cto prove out every step, including getting lunar-derived Helium-3 into the hands of our customers,\u201d Interlune CTO Gary Lai said.<\/p>\n Meyerson said that the group\u2019s first lunar mission will hitch a ride via the NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re in the design process right now and talking to potential partners,\u201d said Meyerson. \u201cWe wouldn\u2019t take up the whole payload. We are raising private capital to go do that. We\u2019ve already raised about $18 million to date and we\u2019ll be fundraising again next year.\u201d<\/p>\n Meyerson said Interlune can generate revenue without NASA as the sole customer.\u00a0<\/p>\n To test their hardware in low-gravity environments, Interlune has been booking flights with the Florida-based Zero-G Corporation, a private group that uses a modified B-727-200 aircraft to mimic lunar gravity conditions during parabolic dives.<\/p>\n Robotic Helium-3 harvesters<\/p>\n Interlune has developed patent-pending compact, energy-efficient processing machinery for use on the moon, which Meyerson says is designed to fit entirely into a single Starship mission.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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<\/a>Interlune is carrying out test flights to evaluate lunar machinery on the Zero-G Corporation\u2019s modified B-727-200 aircraft, which mimics lunar gravity conditions during parabolic dives. Credit: Interlune<\/p>\n