15,000 years of solar wind in four hours? A Seattle company gives it a go.
A Seattle-based company is experimenting with methods to extract helium-3 from lunar regolith simulant. This isotope, deposited on the Moon by solar wind, is viewed as a potential future fuel source for nuclear fusion.
Why it matters
Helium-3 is a rare isotope with significant potential for clean energy and advanced medical applications, making lunar resource extraction a key interest for future space exploration.
A faster solar wind 15,000 years of solar wind in four hours? A Seattle company gives it a go. “We’re living in this world of scarcity with the Moon.”
64 A view inside the vacuum chamber at Interlune where helium gas was ionized and accelerated into the Moon dirt (regolith) simulant for implantation. Credit: Interlune Text settings Story text Size Small Standard Large Width * Standard Wide Links Standard Orange * Subscribers only Learn more Minimize to nav As part of its nuclear fusion processes, the Sun produces a particularly interesting isotope of helium, known as helium-3. Some of this helium-3 escapes the Sun’s gravitational pull as part of the solar wind, a stream of charged particles that emanates out across the Solar System.
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