A company situated in Seattle is exploring how clean energy can be created on the Moon. Interlune, a U.S. firm guided by space experts, revealed a complete prototype of a mining device created to remove helium-3, an isotope with great promise for fusion energy.
According to Rob Meyerson, space operations make it necessary to maintain higher levels of both reliability and performance than what is achieved on Earth.
Unprecedented Speed in Moon Mining
This machine has been designed to be very effective and can process 110 U.S. tons (100 metric tonnes) of the moon’s dirt per hour. To gather enough helium-3 for use, it is important to extract the lunar surface at a fast rate, because helium-3 is rarely found on Earth but is believed to be plentiful on the moon.
Gary Lai, co-founder and Chief Technology Officer at Interlune, explained,
“The high-rate excavation needed to harvest helium-3 from the moon in large quantities has never been attempted before, let alone with high efficiency.”
Farming Equipment Meets Space Tech
The breakthrough prototype was born from an unlikely partnership between Interlune and Vermeer, a 70-year-old agricultural and industrial machinery company. The collaboration has produced what could become the first practical lunar mining system. Lai added,
“We’ve been very pleased with the results of the test programme to date and look forward to the next phase of development.”
From Lunar Dust to Energy on Earth
Interlune highlights that the process involves excavating, sorting, extracting, and separating lunar helium-3. Currently, efforts are focused on uncovering the materials, but the real goal is to establish a process for returning the rare fuel to our planet.
Only after refreshing their technology with a small model last year did the startup proceed with the larger version, a major advance in becoming operational.
Competition over Helium-3 Is Increasing
Helium-3 can be found inside Interlune and elsewhere. Both of these space agencies have suggested that lunar mining will be the next key area for innovative use of energy. If using helium-3 for fusion reactors becomes practical, the Moon might become the most treasured land in space.
