Interlune Receives U.S. Department of Energy Grant to Increase Supply of Domestic Helium-3
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Energy ~ Interlune, a natural resources company, has been awarded a $365,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to develop new technology for separating Helium-3 from domestic Helium supplies. This innovative approach does not require the production of additional tritium, which is used for nuclear weapons and decays into Helium-3 over time. Currently, tritium decay is the only significant source of Helium-3 production on Earth, but it is not scalable enough to meet the growing demand.

The scarcity of Helium-3 on Earth stands in stark contrast to its abundance on the Moon. Interlune plans to leverage the findings from this DOE research grant in their broader mission to harvest Helium-3 from the Moon.

"We are grateful for this grant from the DOE Isotope Program, which will allow us to increase the supply of Helium-3 in the short-term while also advancing technology for harvesting it from the Moon in the near future," said Rob Meyerson, co-founder and CEO of Interlune. "We are proud to support the Department of Energy's efforts to strengthen our domestic supply chain and further advance U.S. technical leadership."

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To achieve their goal, Interlune is collaborating with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) on a novel method of cooling liquid Helium using the magnetocaloric effect. This phenomenon occurs when certain materials change temperature when exposed to a changing magnetic field. The use of magnetocaloric liquefaction has been found to be more energy-efficient and cost-effective than traditional methods. It is necessary to cool Helium to extremely low temperatures in order to separate out the Helium-3.

This project aligns with the DOE Office of Isotope R&D and Production's mission to develop various isotope technologies that will create robust domestic supply chains and reduce dependence on foreign sources.

The demand for dilution refrigerators, which use Helium-3 to reach extremely cold temperatures needed for qubit processing and error correction in superconducting quantum computing, has seen significant growth in recent years. However, the limited supply of Helium-3 presents a bottleneck for future growth in this field. An increase in the supply of Helium-3 would also benefit other industries such as border security, medical imaging, and fusion energy.

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Interlune's ultimate goal is to become the first company to commercialize natural resources from space, starting with Helium-3 from the Moon. The company plans to sell this valuable resource to both commercial and government customers. This year, Interlune received a NASA TechFlights grant to advance their proprietary technology for processing lunar soil and also announced $18 million in seed funding. In 2023, they were awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I award for developing technology to size and sort lunar regolith. The company has plans for multiple missions to the Moon later this decade.

With this new grant from the DOE and their ongoing research and development efforts, Interlune is well on its way to achieving its mission of harvesting Helium-3 from the Moon and providing a reliable domestic supply of this valuable resource. Their innovative approach not only supports U.S. technical leadership but also has the potential to revolutionize various industries that rely on Helium-3 for their operations.
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