The Energy Department is providing funding to help advance technology for a rare isotope on Earth — with potential lunar implications.
The department is giving a grant of $365,000 to help spur new technology to separate helium-3 from domestic helium supplies, Seattle-based natural resources company Interlune announced Thursday and DOE confirmed.
Interlune — whose founders include former executives from Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin and an Apollo 17 astronaut — would then leverage that technology as part of its plans to extract the isotope from the moon, where it is more abundant, in the future.
Context: The federal government is confronting a limited supply of helium-3, traditionally derived through the nation’s nuclear weapons program. Consumption of helium-3 has rapidly increased since 2001 due to its use in homeland security applications, prompting recognition of the challenge of meeting future demand.
