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38 min ago 3 min read
US natural resources company Interlune has successfully implanted and extracted helium-4 from simulated lunar regolith, creating a material designed to allow companies to test lunar resource-extraction equipment on Earth.
The company said its demonstration replicated the effects of around 15,000 years of solar-wind exposure in approximately four hours, providing a simulant that more closely reproduces the helium-bearing characteristics of lunar soil.
Interlune implanted helium into ilmenite, the primary helium-bearing mineral in lunar regolith, before heating the material and measuring the gas released.
The company said the helium was released at temperatures of around 300°C to 800°C, consistent with the broad temperature range observed in studies of Apollo samples.
The development is intended to address a key challenge for companies developing systems to extract resources from the Moon, where access to genuine lunar material for testing is extremely limited.
Testing lunar gas extraction on Earth
Interlune plans to use the helium-bearing material to test its proprietary Harvesting System, which is designed to mechanically release volatile gases from lunar regolith rather than relying primarily on thermal extraction.
Most proposed approaches to extracting solar-wind volatiles involve heating regolith to temperatures approaching 1,000°C, creating major power requirements for lunar operations. Interlune says its mechanical approach could use up to 10 times less power than thermal extraction methods.
“It’s a force multiplier not only for Interlune’s broader technology development, but for others building hardware for the Moon,” said Rob Meyerson, Interlune co-founder and CEO.
The company said its simulant can now be produced in quantities ranging from grams to kilograms, allowing larger prototypes and integrated hardware to be tested on Earth.
Interlune plans to offer the material and associated testing services to commercial companies, research institutions and government customers.
The development builds on Interlune’s work to produce helium-3 on Earth. In July, the company said it had produced 99% pure helium-3 through cryogenic distillation of Grade A helium, with its Cold Capture technology designed to integrate with existing helium liquefaction infrastructure. Interlune has said the technology could eventually support lunar helium-3 production.
In May, Interlune a $6.9m NASA contract to develop and test technology to measure gases in lunar soil and demonstrate early-stage extraction technologies for helium-3 and hydrogen.
The company is now working to extend its simulant work beyond helium-4, with plans to incorporate hydrogen into the material. Hydrogen can modify the structure of ilmenite and enable it to capture and retain solar-wind gases.
Interlune ultimately aims to develop technology capable of extracting lunar helium-3, an isotope that is extremely rare on Earth and has potential applications including quantum computing and other cryogenic technologies.
The commercial potential of helium-3 recovery remains subject to questions over cost and energy requirements. Helium specialist Richard Brook previously told gasworld that, without further details of Interlune’s process, the recovery rate, processing requirements and equipment costs could make the technology “economically challenging”.
Previous work on helium-3 recovery, he said, had found that power costs alone could consume the expected revenue at relatively low processing volumes.
The company is targeting a fully operational lunar harvesting plant in the early 2030s.
