Mining the moon: Can you make money harvesting helium-3?

Several companies firmly believe that mining for helium-3 (He-3) on the moon is a real potential money-maker. But is there an economic return on investment in scouring Earth's moon for that natural resource? Do we need helium-3, and if so, for what?

Helium-3 has been pounding the surface of the moon for billions of years. Found in small quantities in the solar wind, He-3 is implanted in the lunar regolith, the layer of loose, fragmented material that carpets the terrain of the moon.

Over geologic time, meteorite hits on the lunar landscape have stirred up the fluffy regolith, with He-3 being distributed down to several meters in depth.

Tough assignment

But getting a handle on charting He-3 resources is a tough assignment, be it from lunar orbit or on the surface of the moon.

Over the years, many scientists have suggested that prospecting for He-3 could be accomplished using high-energy gamma rays, in the 20 megaelectron volt (MeV) region. But David Lawrence, a leading physicist and planetary scientist at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, isn't so sure.

"While it is true that such a gamma-ray line exists, the ability to use it to map helium-3 is exceedingly unlikely," Lawrence told Space.com. "This is due to the fact that the gamma-ray flux from the reaction is very small, and the helium-3 abundance on the moon is also very small — tens of parts per billion."

Lawrence said that more than one research group has pondered using this approach to map He-3. His advice: "This is not really possible, and it is not worth spending time and energy on this technique."

He suggested that the best way of mapping He-3 on the moon at the moment is by recognizing its affinity with the titanium-bearing mineral ilmenite. "Thus, where one sees enhanced abundances of titanium, one can expect the largest amounts of Helium-3."

Harvesting for an in-space economy

Enter Interlune, a company that was founded in 2020, drawing upon the know-how of former technologists at Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos' spaceflight company. Serving as the group's executive chairman is Apollo 17 moonwalker and geologist Harrison "Jack" Schmitt, also an Interlune co-founder.

Interlune aims to harvest lunar resources — for example, industrial metals, rare Earth elements and water — to support a long-term human presence on the moon and a full-bodied in-space economy.

But the up-front lunar resource demanding Interlune's attention right now is the heavy isotope of He-3, said Rob Meyerson, the company's CEO.

Moon machinery

Earlier this year, Interlune and Iowa-based industrial equipment manufacturer Vermeer Corporation unveiled a full-scale prototype of the Interlune excavator. That machinery is designed to ingest 100 metric tons of lunar regolith per hour and return it to the surface in a continuous motion. A pressing focus is harvesting He-3 from the moon.

"There are lots of ideas out there," Meyerson told Space.com. "Few business plans close. I think ours is one business plan that closes, because we have customers that want to pay for the material that we're going to produce."

Interlune is targeting what it believes will be the near-term need of He-3 for superconducting quantum computing applications.

The big chill

"Quantum computer chips need to be chilled down to near absolute zero to make them work. He-3 is essential for that," Meyerson said. "At $20 million a kilogram, you can put together a good business just going after He-3 for quantum computing over the next five to seven years. And that is what we are doing."

Bluefors, a maker of cryogenic cooling systems for quantum technology, has signed an agreement with Interlune to purchase up to 10,000 liters of helium-3 annually.

To get things literally rolling, Interlune announced in August that the company's payload will fly on Astrolab's FLEX Lunar Innovation Platform (FLIP) rover. FLIP is scheduled to launch toward the lunar south pole mission aboard Astrobotic's Griffin lander as soon as this December.

Interlune's payload on the rover is a multispectral camera built, tested and developed in partnership with NASA's Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley. Camera imagery will be used to estimate He-3 quantities and concentrations in the lunar regolith.

Zeroing in on different sites

Interlune is also designing a planned 2027 mission called Prospect Moon.

"It's a mission to sample lunar regolith, process it and measure the He-3 using a mass spectrometer. It would go to the equatorial near side and prove out that we know where the He-3 is and that our process for extracting it will work effectively," said Meyerson.

Interlune has zeroed in on different sites for large areas of high-volume He-3 concentrations, Meyerson said, making use of data from NASA's Apollo missions and the agency's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.

"The moon is a very big place. The different sites we've identified are each individually very large," Meyerson said.

Loosely bonded

Another approach to reap He-3 on the moon is being taken by the company Magna Petra.

Magna Petra sees the moon as a celestial sponge of sorts, absorbing the particles of the solar wind for billions of years, "making it a fertile isotope resource in our own very backyard," the company's website reads.

The company intends to be a pivotal player in the supply chain of He-3, which it says has critical applications in national security, medical imaging, quantum computing and nuclear fusion energy.

The Magna Petra team is led by Jeffrey Max, a veteran startup entrepreneur and investor with a passion for space innovation.

Max told Space.com that the company approach is to grab gaseous He-3 atoms rather than dig up lunar regolith via traditional mining techniques used here on Earth.

Unique capture technology

"We've patented the technology and are in the process of building that now," said Max. "If you traverse the lunar surface and mechanically disturb the surface regolith, you should be able to excite plumes of isotope that is essentially in suspension, enabling a collection of that free-floating gas."

This "unique capture technology" approach is "more achievable and more reasonable" than other approaches, Max said. "It is very low-power and does not require extensive surface-based infrastructure."

Max said that Magna Petra is blueprinting "recon missions" that will secure ground-truth data about the distribution and density of the loosely-bonded isotope idea.

"We're going up to test this theory," Max said, "basically conduct a kinetic ground disturbance of the lunar regolith, taking readings of the range of isotopes disturbed."

Future missions

Magna Petra and Japan's ispace, a lunar exploration company, have agreed to collaborate on future missions to the moon's surface. The goal is to advance prospecting for, extracting, and returning to Earth He-3.

Under a NASA Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Magna Petra will use a specialized mass spectrometer for moon duty.

Max said that discussions are also underway with the Houston-based company Intuitive Machines, a lunar lander provider, to carry Magna Petra hardware in the 2027-2028 time period.

"Assuming the success of the recon ground-truth missions, then we're looking at the first sample-return mission, which looks like a 2029-2030 timeline. That's how we're going about it, and that's what we're doing," Max concluded.

Cashing in on magnificent desolation

The moon seems remote and desolate today, but are we underestimating the value of that off-Earth wilderness?

Consider this: U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward signed a treaty in March 1867 with Russia for the purchase of Alaska for $7.2 million. Seward envisioned the deal as a way to spread American power throughout the Pacific and encourage American trade and military prowess, but it was mocked in the U.S. Congress as "Seward's folly."

U.S. settlement of Alaska was a slow-going affair, but the unearthing of gold in 1898 fueled a rapid influx of people to The Last Frontier, which is now known to host many valuable natural resources.

Does the draw of our close-by celestial partner suggest a parallel?