Helium-3 is incredibly valuable because it's used in many important technologies. The problem is, there's not much helium-3 on Earth.
But there's a lot of helium-3 on the Moon.
A company called Interlune is working on ways to get helium-3 from the Moon. If we could bring back helium-3, it would open up amazing possibilities for energy, quantum computing, security, and health.
Helium-3 could fuel future fusion reactors. Nuclear fusion with helium-3 would produce energy with less harmful waste compared to other methods. This could mean a world powered by a clean, endless energy source, reducing our need for fossil fuels and helping the environment.
Interlune co-founder and Apollo astronaut Harrison Schmitt, the only geologist to walk on the Moon, wrote a book titled, “Return to the Moon” (2006), which laid the early foundation for the Interlune business plan.
Schmitt developed a comprehensive end-to-end plan for mining helium-3 on the Moon and shipping it to the Earth to power next-generation nuclear fusion reactors.
The fusion reaction between deuterium and helium-3, which produces a proton and helium-4, doesn’t produce energetic neutrons that would damage the fusion reactor and make it radioactive. This is the aneutronic nuclear reaction that requires the least input energy, and therefore is the easiest to achieve.
Other critical technologies
A good supply of helium-3 would enable other important technologies as well:
Helium-3 helps keep quantum computers cool, very close to absolute zero, which is important for quantum computing. With more helium-3, we could build and use more quantum computers.
Helium-3 is used in detectors at borders and ports to catch smuggled nuclear materials. These detectors work by capturing neutrons that come from dangerous materials like plutonium. If we had plenty of helium-3, we could protect our countries better, ensure nuclear facilities follow rules, and even help find landmines in war zones.
Helium-3 can be used in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to look at lungs in great detail, spotting diseases like cancer or asthma early on without using harmful radiation. When helium-3 is breathed in by a patient, it helps create pictures of the lungs that show problems that regular imaging can miss.
