This Startup Is Racing To Be The First To Mine Helium On The Moon

Forbes

Interlune is developing robots to harvest a valuable gas on the lunar surface that could have a big impact on Earth.  Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeremybogaisky/2025/08/29/moon-mining-heiium-interlune/  Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

00:00Today on Forbes, this startup is racing to be the first to mine helium on the moon.

00:06In the lobby of Interloon, a three-foot-wide tabletop diorama shows an idyllic, toy-sized

00:13version of the mining operation the Seattle startup wants to build on the moon. Boxy autonomous

00:19vehicles scrape up the top layer of lunar dirt and crush it to release gas containing a valuable

00:24form of helium. Solar panels on wheeled platforms generate power. Off to one side, a box resembling

00:31a military missile launcher is loaded with small rockets designed to carry bottles of the gas back

00:37to Earth. What Interloon is trying to do is far from child's play. Helium-3, an industrial-prized

00:45cousin of the isotope of the gas we use to fill party balloons, is rare on Earth. In 2024, it sold

00:52for $2,500 per liter, or roughly $19 million a kilogram, according to a report from Edelgas

00:59Group. Interloon CEO Rob Meyerson, who was the former president of Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin,

01:06expects an installation with just five of his mining machines could one day produce at least

01:1110 kilograms of helium-3 a year, worth close to $200 million. However, the company faces daunting

01:20hurdles to get there. Though there is more helium-3 on the moon, it's still far from abundant.

01:27Even if Interloon can find lunar regions with higher concentrations, collecting a commercially

01:31viable amount of helium-3 means developing and transporting to the moon machines that

01:36can chew through millions of tons of regolith, the loose debris that covers the lunar surface

01:41from billions of years of micrometeorite impacts, autonomously, with no boots on the ground to repair

01:48them as they kick up dust more abrasive than anything on Earth. Meyerson told Forbes, quote,

01:54that's one of the things we're going to be great at. Loud whooshes cut with a high-pitched

01:59whine from a compressor announce the presence of another thing the company needs to be great.

02:04It's ultra-low-temperature distillation equipment. Interloon expects less than 1% of the gas they'll

02:11get when they crush lunar regolith will be helium-3. It's estimated to exist only in the single to

02:17double-digit parts per billion. To separate it from balloon helium and hydrogen, they're cooling it all

02:24beyond negative 450 degrees Fahrenheit, at which point the other gases will liquefy and the helium-3

02:30can be siphoned off. Gary Lye, Interloon's chief technical officer and who once ran Blue Origin's

02:37New Shepard rocket program, said, quote, this is probably our hardest problem, but we're making

02:42a huge amount of progress. Even if Interloon is able to establish its first lunar mining camp,

02:49economic viability is still an open question, said Chris Dreyer, professor of space resources at the

02:55Colorado School of Mines, given all the unknowns as to how expensive and reliable its equipment will be

03:01and how that intersects with the actual concentration of helium-3 in the regolith. Dreyer said, quote,

03:08I wouldn't be surprised if they don't make money on the first few times they do this,

03:11but over time, perhaps they can.

03:16A bevy of startups are developing ways to exploit water and minerals on the moon

03:20to make rocket propellant or build structures there, like Starpath and Ispace. Others want to

03:26mine valuable metals on asteroids, like Astroforge, to reduce the need to dig up the Earth. But despite

03:33its many challenges, Interloon may be among those with the best shot of building a business in the

03:37near term based on bringing resources back to our planet, partly because it has ways to monetize its

03:44technology in the meantime. So what kinds of terrestrial uses are there for its technology?

03:50Interloon is pitching companies that derive helium from natural gas to use its distillation equipment

03:54to separate the tiny amount of helium-3 also present. Meyerson thinks they could ramp to producing

04:01a kilogram a year, worth roughly $20 million. Another near-term business? Making space dirt on Earth.

04:09Interloon needs lots of simulated moon regolith implanted with gas to test its mining machines,

04:14and other companies and government agencies are eager to buy it to test their own space equipment.

04:20Interloon has won a $4.8 million grant from the Texas Space Commission to develop and mass-produce

04:26regolith simulant. For full coverage, check out Jeremy Bogasky's piece on Forbes.com.

04:34This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes. Thanks for tuning in.

04:50We'll see you next time.

04:52We'll see you.

04:52Thanks everyone.

04:54Thanks.

04:56You're welcome.

04:58I'll see you next time.

05:02We'll see you next time.

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