Interlune, a stealth startup led by former Blue Origin executives, is working to mine a rare helium isotope on the moon that could be used in quantum computing and even eventually nuclear fusion to generate electricity. The company recently closed $15.5 million in new funding, according to regulatory filings reported here last week; prior to that, Interlune closed a $2.69 million seed round. But until then, little was known about the rationale for raising funds.
The startup is seeking the funding to build and test lunar helium-3 (He-3) resource extraction hardware, according to two confidential bid documents. Representatives for Interlune declined to comment.
Interlune said in its latest promotional materials that it has developed a "breakthrough method" to extract helium from lunar debris, but the slides did not go into more detail. According to a slide, the startup is developing car-sized extractors that can be combined with other hardware to effectively create scalable physical factories. However, the slides did not explain how helium would be stored or transported back to Earth.
He-3 is a stable isotope of helium; the earth is shielded from the solar wind through its magnetic field, while the moon is bombarded by the solar wind, and high-energy particles such as He-3 are deposited on the moon's surface. On Earth, the most common source of He-3 is the decay of tritium, a man-made element used in nuclear weapons. Interlune predicts that demand for He-3 will grow "exponentially" in the coming years, driven by fields such as quantum computing, medical imaging, space propellants and nuclear fusion, with demand expected to reach 4,000 kilograms per year by 2040 (compared to just 5 kilograms now).
He-3 on the moon is just as scarce as it is on Earth. Mining helium-3 on the moon is not a new concept: Data collected since the Apollo missions show the presence of large amounts of the helium-3 isotope on the moon. But for years, it was considered the stuff of science fiction: scientists never came close to developing the necessary extraction techniques to make the effort worthwhile. He-3 could be used to power nuclear fusion reactors -- a particularly alluring concept because its byproducts wouldn't be radioactive -- but while fusion research has made significant gains over the past few years, more will be needed to make fusion a commercially viable energy source on Earth (let alone in space).
Other countries are already looking to our moon for solutions to this problem. Most notably, China announced in 2022 that its Chang'e 5 robotic mission had collected a new lunar mineral containing He-3, suggesting its reserves were greater than previously thought.
China's interest in mining helium-3 creates the conditions necessary to ensure national security for these large-tonnage resources on the moon -- which could mean Interlune is poised to win non-expansionary government contracts from government agencies, as well as investors seeking defense-focused resources.
Interlune’s management team includes CEO Rob Meyerson, a prolific space industry investor and former president of Blue Origin; Chief Technology Officer Gary Lai; Chief Technology Officer Gary Lai; and Chief Operating Officer Indra Hornsby, who has worked at Rocket Lab, BlackSky and Spaceflight Industries. The startup has been around for at least three years, but aside from a few brief public statements, this is the first time the public has learned much about its plans.
The report also stated that Interlune plans to demonstrate this technology on the moon as early as 2026 and establish a pilot plant to extract helium-3 in 2028. The company told investors that if the plan goes as planned, it could generate $500 million in annual recurring revenue from helium-3 recycling by the start of the next decade, and that's only going to grow.
But it's still an expensive plan: The company needs to pay for launch, secure resources to return to partners, and set up all the hardware needed to launch large-scale mining. The economics, such as how much it costs to mine a gram of helium, are also unclear. If Interlune succeeds, though, it will be in a category of its own: There are other startups focused on space resource mining, but they are either focused on using lunar resources purely for on-orbit applications (like ArgoSpace Corporation) or solely on minerals (like AstroForge).