Cryogenic cooling systems specialist Bluefors has signed a deal to purchase up to 10,000 litres of helium-3 annually from 2028 to 2037, marking one of the largest helium-3 procurement agreements to date.
If all goes to plan, the helium-3 will be supplied by Interlune, a natural resources company developing technologies to harvest the isotope from the Moon and the first to commercialise space-based resources.
The Moon contains large quantities of helium-3 deposited by the solar wind. Helium-3 is critical for the development and operation of the quantum computers cooled by Bluefors systems.
These systems deliver ultra-low temperatures below 10 millikelvin, necessary for maintaining the stability and operation of qubits in quantum computers. Helium-3 is mainly the coolant that makes superconducting quantum computers possible.
