Interlune, a startup company, is planning to become the first private entity to extract natural resources from the moon and sell them on Earth. The primary focus of the company is helium-3, an isotope generated by the Sun through thermonuclear fusion and found abundantly on the lunar surface.
In an interview, Rob Meyerson, one of the founders of Interlune and former president of Blue Origin, revealed that the company plans to send equipment to the moon as part of a commercial lunar mission with NASA. The goal is to establish a pilot plant on the moon by 2028 and commence full-scale operations by 2030.
Recently, Interlune announced raising $18 million in investments, with $15 million secured in the latest funding round led by SEVEN SEVEN Six, a venture company owned by Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of Reddit.
Helium-3 has various potential applications on Earth, including in quantum computing, medical imaging, and potentially as fuel for future thermonuclear reactors. The isotope is transported to the moon by solar wind and remains on the lunar surface, absorbed in the soil due to the lack of a magnetosphere on the moon.
Interlune’s plan involves extracting lunar soil, processing it, and extracting the valuable gas for transportation back to Earth. The company is also working on a test robotic mission to study helium concentration in a specific area of the moon using a landing module.
Meyerson emphasized that for the first time in history, the possibility of extracting natural resources from the moon has become technologically and economically feasible. The founding team includes Meyerson, former Blue Origin chief architect Gary Lai, Apollo-17 astronaut Harrison Schmitt, former Rocket Lab employee Indra Hornsby, and James Antifaev, who worked on Alphabet’s high-altitude balloon project known as LOON.