A space company hopes to mine and market helium-3 from the Moon

Rob Meyerson and Gary Lai, former Blue Origin employees, have founded a venture focusing on lunar helium-3 mining, a concept that has been relatively unexplored.

Rob Meyerson and Gary Lai, two former employees of Blue Origin, have left the company to create their own venture that is focused on lunar helium-3 mining. Though it seems that this idea has been around for a long time, very few, if any, businesses have really tried to mine it.

Because it is produced by the solar wind that the Sun emits, helium-3, an isotope used in nuclear fusion, is abundant on the Moon but extremely rare on Earth. Nuclear fuel, cryogenics, and medical imaging are a few of its applications.

Helium-3 is what Interlune wants to harvest and then sell to businesses on Earth. Meyerson, the founder and previous president of Blue Origin, discussed the company's objectives and the $15 million USD in funding it has garnered since 2022 in a recent interview with Ars Technica. By2028, he stated, a pilot plant would be operational, and by 2030, production of helium-3 in sufficient quantities to meet global demand would begin.

The business wants to measure the amount of helium-3 and try to extract some using a lunar "demonstrator mission" that will be launched in 2026. According to the magazine, Blue Origin might be brought on board to aid with the operation or Interlune might collaborate with SpaceX.