Interlune's Harvester, Helium-3, and the Business Case for Lunar Mining

The Harvester Prototype

In the most tangible sign yet that lunar mining is transitioning from concept to engineering, Interlune publicly unveiled its full-scale Helium-3 harvester prototype earlier this year. The Seattle-based startup, founded by former Blue Origin executives, has designed a machine that excavates lunar regolith, heats the fine-grained soil to release trapped gases, and separates Helium-3 through a cryogenic process.

What makes this more than a press release: the system has already been tested at subscale and full-size on Earth, including in simulated lunar gravity during parabolic flights. Interlune's resource development mission, planned for 2027, will measure Helium-3 concentrations at a candidate harvesting site and test extraction on a small scale on the actual lunar surface.

Why Helium-3?

Helium-3 is vanishingly rare on Earth — measured in single-digit kilograms of annual production — but is thought to be abundant in lunar regolith, deposited over billions of years by solar wind. The isotope has near-term commercial value in quantum computing (as a cryogenic coolant and in neutron detectors), medical imaging (lung MRI contrast), and nuclear fusion research.

Current Earth-based prices exceed $2,000 per liter. At those economics, even modest extraction volumes could generate meaningful revenue — especially given that the quantum computing industry's demand for He-3 is growing faster than terrestrial supply.

The Lander Arms Race

Meanwhile, the infrastructure needed to deliver mining equipment to the Moon is maturing rapidly. In early November, both SpaceX and Blue Origin shared updated lunar landing profiles for their respective Artemis program landers.

SpaceX's Starship HLS stands over 50 meters tall and offers unmatched payload capacity — critical for delivering heavy mining equipment. Blue Origin's Blue Moon Mark 1, while smaller at ~15 meters, doesn't require orbital refueling and is already in production, with uncrewed test flights planned for 2026-2027.

NASA has also reopened competition for the Artemis III lander contract, signaling that the agency wants multiple viable paths to the lunar surface — a development that benefits any company planning surface operations.

South Korea's Lunar Testbed

In an unexpected development, South Korea is converting a former terrestrial mine in Taebaek into a testing ground for lunar exploration technologies. The abandoned mine's dark, cold, rugged environment provides a reasonable analog for conditions at the lunar south pole — at a fraction of the cost of testing in vacuum chambers or on actual missions.

The Bigger Picture

November 2025 marks a shift in tone across the industry. We're no longer debating whether lunar resource extraction will happen — the conversation has moved to timelines, supply chains, and market development. The companies building picks and shovels for the lunar gold rush are now testing real hardware, and the landers that will deliver it are in production.

The question is no longer if but who gets there first with a viable extraction system.