Two of Blue Origin's earliest employees, former President Rob Meyerson and Chief Architect Gary Lai, have started a company that seeks to extract helium-3 from the lunar surface, return it to Earth, and sell it for applications here.
The company has been operating in stealth since its founding in 2022, but it emerged on Wednesday by announcing it has raised $15 million, adding to previous rounds of angel investments.
This is a notable announcement because, while the funding is small, the implications are potentially large.
Most firms that have announced business plans to launch rockets to the Moon, land on the Moon, or perform other activities there have been doing so with the intent of selling services or lunar water to NASA
By harvesting helium-3, which is rare and limited in supply on Earth, Interlune could help change that calculus by deriving value from resources on the Moon.
Finally, it must prove that there will be a large and sustained market for the stable isotope on Earth to support its business. Advertisement