Groundbreaking Company Aims to Harness Helium-3 from the Moon’s Surface
Unlocking the Moon’s Hidden Potential
Amid the growing fascination with space exploration, an ambitious endeavor has emerged. Former Blue Origin employees, President Rob Meyerson and Chief Architect Gary Lai, have quietly established a groundbreaking company. Their mission? To extract helium-3, a valuable resource, from the lunar surface and bring it back to Earth for practical applications.
Funding and the Future of Lunar Economy
After several years of operation under a tightly held veil of secrecy since its establishment in 2022, the company recently announced that it has successfully raised an impressive $15 million in funding. Although the amount may seem moderate at first glance, the implications it carries for the burgeoning lunar economy are immense.
Unlike previous lunar exploration ventures which predominantly focused on selling services or lunar water to governmental entities like NASA, Meyerson and Lai’s company, “Interlune,” aims to generate wealth and transform the abstract concept of lunar economy into a reality.
Harvesting Helium-3 and Overcoming Challenges
Interlune aims to tackle the challenge of extracting helium-3 from the lunar regolith, the rocky and abrasive material that covers the lunar surface. Currently, no means of extracting and returning this valuable isotope to Earth exists. However, the company’s visionary leaders remain undeterred, propelled by the transportation, power, and other resources orchestrated under NASA’s Artemis Program.
Meyerson expressed his confidence in the practicality of this ambitious endeavor by stating, “Helium-3 is the only resource out there that is priced high enough to support going to the Moon and bringing it back to Earth. There are customers that want to buy it today.”
An Inexhaustible Resource
Helium-3, a stable isotope of helium comprised of two protons and one neutron, is a resource of great significance. Although it is not found naturally on Earth and is present only in limited quantities resulting from nuclear weapons tests, nuclear reactors, and radioactive decay, immense quantities of this valuable gas are believed to be trapped in pockets of the lunar regolith. With no protective magnetosphere, the Moon has collected helium-3 transported by the Solar wind, making it an invaluable potential source.
