Founded by two former Blue Origin employees, the Interlune company wants to mine the Moon to collect helium-3, considered the fuel of the future, then bring it back to Earth and sell it.
Star deserted for billions of years, the Moon could soon find itself teeming with activity. NASA plans to install a base there by 2040, around which we will find roads made using a giant magnifying glass, plant crops and even fish farming. And besides that, it could even be that we install a mining. In any case, this is the objective of Rob Meyerson and Gary Lai, two former Blue OriginJeff Bezos’ space company which delivers to space and wants to manufacture solar panels on the Moon.
In 2022, the two men create Intermoona startup whose goal is clear: mine helium-3 present on the Earth’s satellite, bring it home and sell it to interested parties. Helium-3 is a isotope helium, one of the atoms that makes up gas. It is produced by the Sun and transported into space by the solar wind. This gas is non-radioactive and very rare on the Blue Planetbut abundant on the Moon. It is in fact regularly deposited in the regolith, the layer of dust that covers the surface of the star. Helium-3 is considered to be neither more nor less than fuel of the future.
A startup wants to mine helium-3 on the Moon, a very rare fuel on Earth
Helium-3 has several potential applications. It is of particular interest to scientists seeking to achieve nuclear fusion, for which it is the perfect fuel. As a reminder, controlling this phenomenon would make it possible to produce energy from very few raw materialsWho does not emit greenhouse gases responsible for global warming, and without creating radioactive waste with a long lifespan. But this is not the only possible use of the isotope.
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It could, for example, be integrated into quantum computersthese super-powerful machines in which France has invested nearly 2 billion euros, or used for technologies still in development such as cryogenics. Even themedical imaging would benefit from helium-3. For Rob Meyerson, “Helium-3 is the only resource available that is priced high enough to afford going to the Moon and back to Earth. There are customers who want to buy it now“. A liter of the isotope costs several thousand dollars.
Moon mining is possible, but not yet
There is still a long way to go before creating a real operation. To extract even one gram, hundreds of tons of regolith must be treated. Interlune claims to have developed a energy-efficient extraction processbut a major problem remains: there is currently no way to return the isotope to Earth. The startup is, however, very confident in its ability to create a viable business.
In 2026Interlune will launch a demonstration mission. Its objective is to collect a sample of lunar regolith, measure the quantity of helium-3 it contains and then extract it. The mission will surely leave taking advantage of one of the commercial flights to the Moon carried out by the NASA, thanks to which private companies can have equipment delivered to the star. If the operation is a success, the idea is to build a pilot factory directly on the Moon by 2028 at the latest, then start delivering the isotope to Earth around 2030.
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The round trips would be ensured by the vessels of SpaceX, Elon Musk’s company, or by those of Blue Origin from which the founders of Interlune come. The two firms are in fact in the process of developing reusable lunar landers and a system of transport of goods between the Moon and Earth. The project is very ambitious, especially with such close deadlines, but Rob Meyerson and Gary Lai firmly believe in this space gold rush.
Source: Ars Technica