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Tue, 16 Jun 2026

Tue, 16 Jun 2026 What is Helium-3 and could we get it from the moon?

Helium-3 is expensive and demand is forecast to soar, so some are planning to mine it on the moon.
Lancaster University stores helium-3 gas, one of the most expensive materials in the world, in beer kegs worth around $2,000 per liter. The university has been stockpiling this gas for 50 years due to its potential applications in quantum computing and nuclear fusion. However, experts predict that future demand for helium-3 could exceed current supply, which comes mainly from the decay of tritium in nuclear weapons. To address this issue, companies like Interlune are planning to extract helium-3 from lunar regolith, with estimates suggesting it may be present at relatively high concentrations on the moon. Interlune's co-founder and CEO Rob Meyerson, a former president of Blue Origin, is leading the effort to recover helium-3 from the moon. The company has developed equipment for extracting the gas and plans to integrate it into a lunar lander as early as 2027. While extracting helium-3 from the moon may seem like a daunting task, some experts argue that the economic viability of this plan is still unclear. Interlune declined to share its estimated costs for developing the technology, but CEO Meyerson claims they have run the numbers and found it feasible. Other companies, such as Astrotech Corporation, are also planning to extract helium-3 from lunar regolith using different methods. Meanwhile, some scientists are working on alternative methods of cooling quantum computers that don't rely on helium-3. In addition to lunar extraction, another company, Pulsar Helium, is investigating the presence of helium-3 in the Earth's crust, with concentrations found at a site in Minnesota being around 12 parts per billion. Conventional drilling could potentially yield helium-3 from this location, making it a more accessible source than extracting it from the moon. The demand for helium-3 is expected to increase as quantum computers become more widespread, and companies like Helsinki-based quantum computing company are already signing deals with Interlune for 10,000 liters of helium-3 annually.