The SpaceCom Column

As Artemis III circles the Moon and NASA swings into high gear for returning humans to the lunar surface before China, commercial ventures are examining their options to leverage a long tail of NASA investment for generating monetary returns. Helium-3, a rare isotope found in abundance on the lunar surface, provides not one but two paths for profitability if start-up firms can put together a combination of pieces to mine the gas and return it to Earth.

Using helium-3 as a fusion fuel has long been advocated by many, starting with Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison Schmitt in the 1980s. Combined with deuterium under the proper circumstances, it could provide abundant clean power, ultimately making fossil plants obsolete. Over the years, helium-3 has been portrayed in a positive light through written science fiction and most recently by the Apple TV’s alt-history series “For All Mankind.”

In the real world, Helion Energy and Princeton Satellite Systems both are working towards helium-3-fueled reactors, with Helion having raised over $1 billion to scale their technology into commercial production with the stated goal to deliver electricity to Microsoft from a 50 MW fusion plant starting in 2028. 

But the new joke about fusion is that it is “always 10 years away,” an update from the old one of it being “30 years away.”Fusion makes rocket science look easy, and there are numerous privately funded startups racing to move the complex physics and technology out of demonstration mode and into production service. There are over 40 startup companies funded by over $7 billion in venture capital, each working a different angle. Certainly, Helion is among the most well-funded, but others have raised more money and announced more conservative timelines to first power generation using non-helium-3 approaches.

The second path to helium-3 mining profitability is wrapped up in an even more esoteric technology: quantum computing. Lowering and maintaining quantum computing hardware to the temperatures needed for operations requires highly efficient refrigeration, with helium-3 providing an essential boost to reach the ultra-low temperatures needed. 

In September 2025, Finnish cryogenic cooling systems company Bluefors Bluefores signed a first-of-its-kind agreement with lunar mining company Interlune to purchase up to ten thousand10,000 liters of helium-3 annually for delivery from 2028 to 2037. Bluefores Bluefors states it has the most extensive base of cryogenic hardware installed worldwide, with over 1,500 dilution refrigerators and more than 15,000 cryocoolers to date. More helium-3 is needed for the expected boom in quantum computing as it moves out of the demonstration projects and scales to commercial applications.

However, there are two separate risks involved in this arrangement. Interlune has yet to put demonstration hardware on the lunar surface, making a delivery date of 2028 for the first off-planet helium harvest quite aggressive, given the limited number of proven commercial lunar lander platforms at this point in time and the lack of a demonstrated commercial lunar resource return system. Perhaps Blue Origin has something up its sleeve that Interlune CEO Rob MyersonMeyerson is privy to, since he was President and CEO of Blue from 2003-2018. 

The longer-term risk for both companies is the continued iteration of quantum computing hardware, with many companies working to develop hardware that doesn’t require the extreme refrigeration that most current quantum chips require. There’s a substantial pipeline for the current supercooled computers, but current and future quantum computer operators would like to find a way to move those machines into standardized data center racks, rather than be dependent upon expensive hardware and helium-3.

Regardless of its future prospects, helium-3 is the only off-planet material at this point with a clear earth-bound business case. It will be up to Interlune and others to demonstrate the ability to leverage launch services and commercial landers fostered by NASA commercial contracts and turning a profit at the end of the day.

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