{"id":1033419,"date":"2026-08-30T18:15:20","date_gmt":"2026-08-30T18:15:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1033419\/"},"modified":"2026-08-30T18:15:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-30T18:15:20","slug":"us-start-up-seeks-miners-in-race-for-20-quadrillion-moon-resource","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1033419\/","title":{"rendered":"US start-up seeks miners in race for $20 quadrillion moon resource"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"News.com.au\"
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

It sounds so far-fetched as to be something out of science fiction: robots mining on the moon.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s one very big incentive to make this lunar extraction dream come true \u2013 money, lots and lots of money.<\/p>\n

Not millions of dollars: miners don\u2019t get out of bed for that. Not billions; not even trillions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re talking 20 quadrillion dollars of helium-3, at the current market price, is present on the moon,\u201d said Gary Lai, chief technology officer of moon mining start-up Interlune, based in Seattle.<\/p>\n

A Seattle-based startup is working on a plan to start mining the moon for helium-3. Geoffrey Swaine\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

Interlune wants to begin experimental moon digs as soon as 2028. And, the firm has told news.com.au in the US, it needs Australia\u2019s help to dig up the moon\u2019s very, very valuable dirt.<\/p>\n

The pursuit of helium-3<\/a> on the moon has been rubbished in the past as literal \u201cmoonshine.\u201d But the US isn\u2019t the only country keen on helium-3 \u2013 China wants in, potentially setting up a superpower battle for one of the rarest and most valuable substances known to man.<\/p>\n

Most of us will be familiar with helium: a gas so light it makes balloons float. More practically, it is used in the huge magnets of MRI scanners and in the production of microchips, among other uses.<\/p>\n

Helium-3, an isotope of helium, is a whole other level of high tech usefulness. It\u2019s an essential part of super cool fridges that are needed for quantum computers. Abundant helium-3 could revolutionise quantum computing. It could potentially also be used in low radioactive nuclear fusion reactors, which could dramatically change power generation. Helium-3 could improve MRI scanning imagery and it can even sniff out smuggled nuclear material.<\/p>\n

An ampoule of helium-3. Wikimedia Commons\/Alicepublic<\/p>\n

Helium is relatively easy to find on earth. Helium-3 is not. It comprises just 0.000137 per cent of helium. On Earth, it is chiefly harvested from decaying tritium, which is used in nuclear weapons. And nukes are not the easiest thing to get access too.<\/p>\n

No surprise, then, that much of the current helium-3 stock is stockpiled by the US government \u2013 which has the nukes \u2013 with only a limited amount sold.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not that helium-3 is rare in the universe. \u201cThe sun spews it out in all directions,\u201d said Lai.<\/p>\n

But the earth\u2019s atmosphere and magnetic field swats it away back into space.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe moon doesn\u2019t have an atmosphere or a strong magnetic field, so for billions of years it\u2019s just been collecting on the surface,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

From left, mechanical engineer Sam Heyd, chief technology officer Gary Lai and chemical engineer Brenden Pelkie operate Cold Capture in Interlune\u2019s Cryogenic Lab at the company\u2019s Seattle headquarters. Interlune<\/p>\n

\u201cWithin the first three meters of soil on the moon there\u2019s estimated to be about 1 billion kilograms.\u201d<\/p>\n

One kilogram of helium-3 is worth a whopping $20 million. In total, that\u2019s $20 quadrillion potentially just lying around in moon dirt.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the number that gets everyone\u2019s attention,\u201d said Interlune CEO Rob Meyerson.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the only thing that\u2019s priced high enough to warrant going to space and bringing it back to Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Interlune\u2019s building, in a nondescript business park south of Seattle\u2019s CBD, don\u2019t scream \u201cnext stop moon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t be fooled.<\/p>\n

Interlune\u2019s CEO Rob Myerson. Youtube\/SAFE<\/p>\n

Seattle is the heart of not just America\u2019s space industry \u2013 but the world\u2019s. Around half of all the commercial satellites that have ever orbited were constructed in Seattle, or across Washington state.<\/p>\n

Its position as a global hub of aircraft building \u2013 centred around Boeing\u2019s huge factories \u2013 means it is also leading on space exploration.<\/p>\n

Alongside Boeing, which had a crucial role in the recent Artemis II mission, firms like Blue Origin, Space X and Amazon Leo have Seattle bases. The US government, where much of the funding comes from, also has a massive presence, with huge chunks of the military housed in the many quiet backwaters of the Puget Sound.<\/p>\n

Helium-3 moon mining<\/strong><\/p>\n

A stylized rendering of the Astrolab Flexible Logistics and Exploration (FLEX) rover integrated with Interlune excavation technology. Interlune<\/p>\n

It\u2019s one thing to get to space \u2013 it\u2019s quite another to land on the moon, start digging up dust, and send it back to Earth, all without humans actually being on the surface to give the rover a kick if it conks out.<\/p>\n

Even if those hurdles are surpassed, helium-3 is only a minuscule component of the lunar soil, known as regolith.<\/p>\n

The plan is to crush the soil quickly, liberating a gas which is mostly regular helium and hydrogen.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo separate out the helium-3, we do really deep cryogenic distillation,\u201d said Lai.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you cool the gas enough, everything turns to liquid except helium-3, which has the lowest liquefaction point of anything in the solar system.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, helium-3 remains a gas at just two degrees Kelvin \u2013 that\u2019s just above absolute zero, theoretically the coldest known temperature, equivalent to -273.15C.<\/p>\n

You then have to get the helium-3 back to earth.<\/p>\n

Right now, Interlune is peppering simulated lunar soil on earth with small amounts of helium-3 and placing it into a chamber that mimics the vacuum of the moon to test how effective its extraction robots are.<\/p>\n

\u2018Moonshine\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dreams of a helium-3 lunar bonanza aren\u2019t new. And some have rolled their eyes, dismissing it as little more than a fantasy.<\/p>\n

Twenty years ago, Oxford particle physicist Frank Close suggested that even if helium-3 could be mined, the complexity of bringing it back could render it useless.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe lunar-helium-3 story is, to my mind, moonshine,\u201d he\u00a0scathingly wrote in 2007<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But that scepticism has been more than outweighed by the sheer ambition \u2013 and the profits that could be made.<\/p>\n

Interlune has secured $US23 million ($32m) in funding including a contract worth $US6.9m ($9.8m) with NASA to advance its experiments.<\/p>\n

Last month, it said it had managed to extract 99 per cent pure helium-3 from standard helium found on Earth through its cryogenic technology. It means it could start harvesting the isotope before it even gets to the moon. But that same tech will also be key to moon-mined helium-3.<\/p>\n

Australia\u2019s help sought<\/strong><\/p>\n

The company says it\u2019s looking to Australia for help.<\/p>\n

Already, the\u00a0Australian Space Agency is working with NASA<\/a>\u00a0to design a space rover (yes, it\u2019s called \u201cRoo-ver\u201d) that could pick up and transport regolith \u2013 where helium-3 would be present.<\/p>\n

\u201cAustralia has always been a key partner with NASA so we see the collaboration with the Australian mining sector as being an obvious synergy with us,\u201d Interlune chief operating officer Indra Hornsby told news.com.au.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re looking for strategic partners in the Western Australia mining ecosystem because Australia\u2019s got that combination of the space exploration and the mining exploration \u2013 and that is a sweet spot for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hornsby said Interlune had already held discussions with several companies in Perth about collaborating.<\/p>\n

China-US moon clash<\/strong><\/p>\n

The US is aiming to have astronauts on the moon again in 2028 with the Artemis III expedition. space.gov<\/p>\n

But if the US is investing in possible mines on the moon, you can bet other nations are too.<\/p>\n

China is spending billions on a\u00a0magnetic space launcher that could extract helium-3<\/a>\u00a0and ricochet capsules of it back to Earth.<\/p>\n

Notably, China has not signed the US-backed Artemis Accords. These set out guidelines for space exploration, including that it should be peaceful, activities should be transparent and nations should \u201crefrain from any intentional actions that may create harmful interference with each other\u2019s use of outer space.\u201d Even if China had signed, the accords are non-binding.<\/p>\n

Could a celestial conflict arise due to a helium-3 gold rush?<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, we\u2019re not going to start a war with China,\u201d said Hornsby, confidently.<\/p>\n

\u201cChina is not a signatory of the Artemis Accords, that\u2019s true, but China does participate actively with the United Nations and the US on the peaceful uses of outer space, so they are co-ordinating.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not in anyone\u2019s interest, including China\u2019s, to create conflict on the moon,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe moon\u2019s a very, very big place, and we don\u2019t see a conflict developing in terms of where China wants to go, where we want to go and where other nations are focused.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, Interlune has said its entire operation for the first five years could fit within one kilometre square and it initially only expects to remove 10-20 kilograms of the estimated one billion kilos of helium-3 from the surface.<\/p>\n

Right now, moon mining remains a lunar dream. But the US is rushing to make it a reality.<\/p>\n

The first step is to get astronauts back on the moon<\/a> by 2028 as part of Artemis III. If that happens, a Seattle company will be hoping they\u2019ll take a rover with them, which could be the next huge step towards reaping a multi-quadrillion windfall.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It sounds so far-fetched as to be something out of science fiction: robots mining on the moon. But…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1033420,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[24],"tags":[4740,74,994,159,783,67,132,68,107],"class_list":["post-1033419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-australia","tag-china","tag-moon","tag-science","tag-space","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-world-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117185829258096289","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1033419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1033419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1033419\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1033420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1033419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1033419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1033419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}