In early May 2025, the American company Interlune, which plans to mine resources in space, presented a full-size prototype of a lunar excavator for extracting helium-3.
The prototype was created in collaboration with American agricultural and industrial equipment manufacturer Vermeer. It was announced that Vermeer CEO Jason Andringa will join Interlune's advisory board.
The prototype that was presented can process up to 100 tons of lunar regolith per hour during continuous movement. The main goal is the collection of helium-3. Representatives of Interlune and Vermeer are satisfied with the testing of the excavator on Earth and are waiting for the start of a new phase of testing. Digging up the regolith is only the first stage of helium-3 extraction. After that, the raw material must be sorted, extracted and divided into fractions.
Recall that helium-3 is a stable isotope of helium, extremely scarce on Earth, but common on the surface of the Moon. The production of helium-3 on Earth does not exceed a few dozen grams per year. In the United States, there is a huge demand for helium-3 in several industries, including national security, quantum computing, medical imaging and fusion energy. As for the latter, it is believed that commercial, safe and clean helium-3 reactors will not appear before 2050.
Interlune is a company founded in 2020 by Rob Meyerson, a former NASA aerospace engineer, president of Blue Origin (2003–2018), and board member of Axiom Space. The company's mission is to begin industrial mining on the Moon.