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To make this plan a reality, Interlune needs larger lunar landers to come online. Look, no one said building a large harvester to roam around the Moon and sift through hundreds of tons of regolith to retrieve small amounts of helium-3 would be easy. And that's to say nothing of the enormous challenge of processing and then launching any of this material from the lunar surface before finally landing it safely on Earth. If we're being completely honest, doing all of this commercially is a pretty darn difficult row to hoe. Many commercial space experts dismiss it outright. So that's why it's gratifying to see that a company that is proposing to do this, Interlune, is taking some modest steps toward this goal. Moreover, recent changes in the tides of space policy may also put some wind in the sails of Interlune and its considerable ambitions. Sifting rock and selling helium isotopes Let's start with the recent developments. Last Month Interlune announced that it had partnered with an industrial equipment manufacturer, Vermeer Corporation, to build and test an excavator that could ingest 100 metric tons of dirt (which was a decent facsimile of lunar regolith, but not a high-quality simulant) per hour. The machine is sized to produce about 20 kg of helium-3 a year. Of course, operating on Earth is vastly different from the lunar surface, but this nonetheless offers a reasonable proof of concept. "We demonstrated that we could pull that much material through at a certain power output," said Rob Meyerson, chief executive officer of Interlune, of the excavator. "We gathered the data we needed for designing the next version of it, which we've already started on." Vermeer is a significant partner. The company doesn't have the brand of public recognition of a John Deere, which makes consumer products, but it is a major player in agricultural machines and has 4,000 employees. The company's chief executive is a former engineer from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory named Jason Andringa. He is joining Interlune's board. Interlune also announced its first customers. A quantum infrastructure company, Maybell Quantum, has agreed to purchase thousands of liters of helium-3 between 2029 and 2035. The helium-3 will be used in Maybell's refrigerators, which cool quantum devices to near-absolute zero temperatures. Additionally, the US Department of Energy has agreed to purchase 3 liters of helium-3 harvested from the Moon, no later than April 2029. As we wrote in 2024, When proponents of helium-3 have talked about the isotope in the past, they often have lauded its potential as a nuclear fuel. But Meyerson says a more realistic near-term application is for cryogenics. Helium-3 refrigerators can cool temperatures down to 0.2 kelvin, which is important for quantum computing. The road ahead Meyerson said the company's current plan is to fly a prospecting mission in 2027, a payload of less than 100 kg, likely on a commercial lander that is part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program. Two years later, the company seeks to fly a pilot plant. Meyerson said the size of this plant will depend on the launch capability available (i.e., if Starship is flying to the Moon, they'll go big, and smaller if not). Following this, Interlune is targeting 2032 for the launch of a solar-powered operating plant, which would include five mobile harvesters. The operation would also be able to return material mined to Earth. The total mass for this equipment would be about 40 metric tons, which could fly on a single Starship or two New Glenn Mk 2 landers. This would, understandably, be highly ambitious and capital-intensive. After raising $15 million last year, Meyerson said Interlune is planning a second fundraising round that should begin soon. There are some outside factors that may be beneficial for Interlune. One is that China has a clear and demonstrated interest in sending humans to the Moon and has already sent rovers to explore for helium-3 resources. Moreover, with the exit of Jared Isaacman as a nominee to lead NASA, the Trump administration is likely to put someone in the position who is more focused on lunar activities. One candidate, a retired Air Force General named Steve Kwast, is a huge proponent of mining helium-3. Interlune has a compelling story, as there are almost no other lunar businesses focused solely on commercial activities that will drive value from mining the lunar surface. In that sense, they could be a linchpin of a lunar economy. However, they have a long way to go, and a lot of lunar regolith to plow through, before they start delivering for customers. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of May): 2,377 RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

Getting oxygen from regolith takes 24 kWh per kilogram, and we'd need tonnes. If humanity is ever to spread out into the Solar System, we're going to need to find a way to put fuel into rockets somewhere other than the cozy confines of a launchpad on Earth. One option for that is in low-Earth orbit, which has the advantage of being located very close to said launch pads. But it has the considerable disadvantage of requiring a lot of energy to escape Earth's gravity—it takes a lot of fuel to put substantially less fuel into orbit. One alternative is to produce fuel on the Moon. We know there is hydrogen and oxygen present, and the Moon's gravity is far easier to overcome, meaning more of what we produce there can be used to send things deeper into the Solar System. But there is a tradeoff: any fuel production infrastructure will likely need to be built on Earth and sent to the Moon. How much infrastructure is that going to involve? A study released today by PNAS evaluates the energy costs of producing oxygen on the Moon, and finds that they're substantial: about 24 kWh per kilogram. This doesn't sound bad until you start considering how many kilograms we're going to eventually need. Free the oxygen! The math that makes refueling from the Moon appealing is pretty simple. "As a rule of thumb," write the authors of the new study on the topic, "rockets launched from Earth destined for [Earth-Moon Lagrange Point 1] must burn ~25 kg of propellant to transport one kg of payload, whereas rockets launched from the Moon to [Earth-Moon Lagrange Point 1] would burn only ~four kg of propellant to transport one kg of payload." Departing from the Earth-Moon Lagrange Point for locations deeper into the Solar System also requires less energy than leaving low-Earth orbit, meaning the fuel we get there is ultimately more useful, at least from an exploration perspective. But, of course, you need to make the fuel there in the first place. The obvious choice for that is water, which can be split to produce hydrogen and oxygen. We know there is water on the Moon, but we don't yet know how much, and whether it's concentrated into large deposits. Given that uncertainty, people have also looked at other materials that we know are present in abundance on the Moon's surface. And there's probably nothing more abundant on that surface than regolith, the dust left over from constant tiny impacts that have, over time, eroded lunar rocks. The regolith is composed of a variety of minerals, many of which contain oxygen, typically the heavier component of rocket fuel. And a variety of people have figured out the chemistry involved in separating oxygen from these minerals on the scale needed for rocket fuel production. But knowing the chemistry is different from knowing what sort of infrastructure is needed to get that chemistry done at a meaningful scale. To get a sense of this, the researchers decided to focus on isolating oxygen from a mineral called ilmenite, or FeTiO3. It's not the easiest way to get oxygen—iron oxides win out there—but it's well understood. Someone actually patented oxygen production from ilmenite back in the 1970s, and two hardware prototypes have been developed, one of which may be sent to the Moon on a future NASA mission. The researchers propose a system that would harvest regolith, partly purify the ilmenite, then combine it with hydrogen at high temperatures, which would strip the oxygen out as water, leaving behind purified iron and titanium (both of which may be useful to have). The resulting water would then be split to feed the hydrogen back into the system, while the oxygen can be sent off for use in rockets. (This wouldn't solve the issue of what that oxygen will ultimately oxidize to power a rocket. But oxygen is typically the heavier component of rocket fuel combinations—typically about 80 percent of the mass—and so the bigger challenge to get to a fuel depot.) Obviously, this process will require a lot of infrastructure, like harvesters, separators, high-temperature reaction chambers, and more. But the researchers focus on a single element: how much power will it suck down? More power! To get their numbers, the researchers made a few simplifying assumptions. These include assuming that it's possible to purify ilmenite from raw regolith and that it will be present in particles small enough that about half the material present will participate in chemical reactions. They ignored both the potential to get even more oxygen from the iron and titanium oxides present, as well as the potential for contamination from problematic materials like hydrogen sulfide or hydrochloric acid. The team found that almost all of the energy is consumed at three steps in the process: the high-temperature hydrogen reaction that produces water (55 percent), splitting the water afterwards (38 percent), and converting the resulting oxygen to its liquid form (five percent). The typical total usage, depending on factors like the concentration of ilmenite in the regolith, worked out to be about 24 kW-hr for each kilogram of liquid oxygen. Obviously, the numbers are sensitive to how efficiently you can do things like heat the reaction mix. (It might be possible to do this heating with concentrated solar, avoiding the use of electricity for this entirely, but the authors didn't analyze that.) But it was also sensitive to less obvious efficiencies. For example, a better separation of the ilmenite from the rest of the regolith means you're using less energy to heat contaminants. So, while the energetic cost of that separation is small, it pays off to do it effectively. Based on orbital observations, the researchers map out the areas where ilmenite is present at high enough concentrations for this approach to make sense. These include some of the mares on the near side of the Moon, so they're easy to get to. A map of the lunar surface, with areas with high ilmenite concentrations shown in blue. Credit: Leger, et. al. On its own, 24 kWh doesn't seem like a lot of power. The problem is that we will need a lot of kilograms. The researchers estimate that getting an empty SpaceX Starship from the lunar surface to the Earth-Moon Lagrange Point takes 80 tonnes of liquid oxygen. And a fully fueled starship can hold over 500 tonnes of liquid oxygen. We can compare that to something like the solar array on the International Space Station, which has a capacity of about 100 kW. That means it could power the production of about four kilograms of oxygen an hour. At that rate, it'll take a bit over 10 days to produce a tonne, and a bit more than two years to get enough oxygen to get an empty Starship to the Lagrange Point—assuming 24-7 production. Being on the near side, they will only produce for half the time, given the lunar day. Obviously, we can build larger arrays than that, but it boosts the amount of material that needs to be sent to the Moon from Earth. It may potentially make more sense to use nuclear power. While that would likely involve more infrastructure than solar arrays, it would allow the facilities to run around the clock, thus getting more production from everything else we've shipped from Earth. This paper isn't meant to be the final word on the possibilities for lunar-based refueling; it's simply an early attempt to put hard numbers on what ultimately might be the best way to explore our Solar System. Still, it provides some perspective on just how much effort we'll need to make before that sort of exploration becomes possible. PNAS, 2025. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2306146122 (About DOIs). Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of January): 487 RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

The small step back to Earth’s satellite will provide a giant leap for exploring our solar system. This year will mark a turning point in humanity’s relationship with the moon, as we begin to lay the foundations for a permanent presence on its surface, paving the way for our natural satellite to become an industrial hub—one that will lead us to Mars and beyond. Developing a lunar economy boils down to three critical elements: the ability to get there, the means to refuel for the return journey, and profitable enterprises operating on the lunar surface. And, in 2025, technologies in all three areas will finally begin to take tangible shape. For nearly a decade, the titans of private space exploration—SpaceX and Blue Origin—have been locked in a race to get to the moon. SpaceX's latest rocket, Starship, is central to this effort. At nearly double the height (121 meters vs. 70 meters), and three times the width (9 meters vs 3.7 meters) of its predecessor, Falcon 9, Starship certainly has the size—but it’s also designed to change how we think about space travel. Unlike traditional rockets, which are used once and then discarded, Starship can be reused for multiple flights and even refueled while it’s in orbit. Its increased power means it can deliver about 100 metric tons of payload to the moon in a single trip—that’s roughly equivalent to all payloads sent to the moon in history combined, but in just one go. Traditional rockets can deliver only about 0.1 percent of their total takeoff weight to the moon, but Starship, with its refueling capability, can deliver approximately 2 percent. Picture this: If a traditional rocket were a moving truck, it’d be like using an 18-wheeler to deliver one suitcase. With Starship, the cost per ton of payload delivered to the lunar surface plummets, making moon missions more affordable. Not far behind is Blue Origin’s Blue Moon lander. While it may be smaller than Starship, with a capacity of nearly 3 metric tons, Blue Moon is designed to deliver heavy equipment and infrastructure, the tools that will turn the moon from a barren outpost into a thriving industrial base. Together, these vehicles are laying the groundwork for a nascent lunar economy. In 2025, SpaceX plans to demonstrate Starship’s full suite of capabilities, including its ability to refuel in orbit and be reused—slashing the costs of lunar transport and making the moon more accessible than ever. This is part of an ongoing series of orbital flight tests, which began in 2023 and continued through 2024, and will do so in 2025. Meanwhile, Blue Origin's Blue Moon lander is scheduled for its maiden flight in early 2025, marking a critical step in establishing the infrastructure needed for long-term lunar exploration and industrial activities. Another major milestone in the race to the moon is scheduled for late 2025, when Nasa’s Artemis II mission plans to carry a crew around it, the first time humans have ventured far beyond low Earth orbit since the Apollo missions. This mission is a critical first crewed flight for Nasa’s Orion spacecraft and the Space Launch System. It’s also a prelude for Artemis III, which will mark humanity’s return to the lunar surface in 2026. Supporting Artemis’ mission is the Lunar Gateway, a space station that will orbit the moon and serve as a key logistics hub for missions to the lunar surface. In 2025, Nasa will make significant progress on the Gateway by launching and assembling its first modules, including those that will provide power, propulsion, and living quarters for astronauts. The Gateway will be crucial for making long-term lunar exploration possible. Getting to the moon is only the first piece of the equation. A sustainable lunar economy depends on the ability to transport people and materials from the lunar surface back to Earth. The critical limiting factor for returning home is access to fuel for the return journey. The company I founded, Starpath, is creating the first “gas station” on the moon, with an end-to-end fuel production system on the lunar surface capable of turning icy regolith into rocket fuel. The three-part system involves a fleet of autonomous mining rovers that harvest the icy dirt, a processing plant that heats the ice to extract water, splitting the water into hydrogen and oxygen and then liquefying the oxygen, and a massive solar array that powers the entire operation. In 2025, we will demonstrate this technology at scale, enabling regular, low-cost travel between Earth and the moon—and beyond. As these technologies take off, the moon will no longer be just a distant, desolate place. It will become the gateway to humanity’s future in space. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

Eruptions seem to have continued long after widespread volcanism had ended. Signs of volcanic activity on the Moon can be viewed simply by looking up at the night-time sky: The large, dark plains called "maria" are the product of massive outbursts of volcanic material. But these were put in place relatively early in the Moon's history, with their formation ending roughly 3 billion years ago. Smaller-scale additions may have continued until roughly 2 billion years ago. Evidence of that activity includes samples obtained by China's Chang'e-5 lander. But there are hints that small-scale volcanism continued until much more recent times. Observations from space have identified terrain that seems to be the product of eruptions, but only has a limited number of craters, suggesting a relatively young age. But there's considerable uncertainty about these deposits. Now, further data from samples returned to Earth by the Chang’e-5 mission show clear evidence of volcanism that is truly recent in the context of the history of the Solar System. Small beads that formed during an eruption have been dated to just 125 million years ago. Counting beads Obviously, some of the samples returned by Chang'e-5 are solid rock. But it also returned a lot of loose material from the lunar regolith. And that includes a decent number of rounded, glassy beads formed from molten material. There are two potential sources of those beads: volcanic activity and impacts. The Moon is constantly bombarded by particles ranging in size from individual atoms to small rocks, and many of these arrive with enough energy to melt whatever it is they smash into. Some of that molten material will form these beads, which may then be scattered widely by further impacts. The composition of these beads can vary wildly, as they're composed of either whatever smashed into the Moon or whatever was on the Moon that got smashed. So, the relative concentrations of different materials will be all over the map. By contrast, any relatively recent volcanism on the Moon will be extremely rare, so is likely to be from a single site and have a single composition. And, conveniently, the Apollo missions already returned samples of volcanic lunar rocks, which provide a model for what that composition might look like. So, the challenge was one of sorting through the beads returned from the Chang'e-5 landing site, and figuring out which ones looked volcanic. And it really was a challenge, as there were over 3,000 beads returned, and the vast majority of them would have originated in impacts. As a first cutoff, the team behind the new work got rid of anything that had a mixed composition, such as unmelted material embedded in the bead, or obvious compositional variation. This took the 3,000 beads down to 764. Those remaining beads were then subject to a technique that could determine what chemicals were present. (The team used an electron probe microanalyzer, which bombards the sample with electrons and uses the photons that are emitted to determine what elements are present.) As expected, compositions were all over the map. Some beads were less than 1 percent magnesium oxide; others nearly 30 percent. Silicon dioxide ranged from 16 to 60 percent. Based on the Apollo samples, the researchers selected for beads that were high in magnesium oxide relative to calcium and aluminum oxides. That got them down to 13 potentially volcanic samples. They also looked for low nickel, as that's found in many impactors, which got the number down to six. The final step was to look at sulfur isotopes, as impact melting tends to preferentially release the lighter isotope, altering the ratio compared to intact lunar rocks. After all that, the researchers were left with three of the glassy beads, which is a big step down from the 3,000 they started with. Erupted Those three were then used to perform uranium-based radioactive dating, and they all produced numbers that were relatively close to each other. Based on the overlapping uncertainties, the researchers conclude that all were the product of an eruption that took place about 123 million years ago, give or take 15 million years. Considering that the most recent confirmed eruptions were about 2 billion years ago, that's a major step forward in timing. And that's quite a bit of a surprise, as the Moon has had plenty of time to cool, and that cooling would have increased the distance between its surface and any molten material left in the interior. So it's not obvious what could be creating sufficient heating to generate molten material at present. The researchers note that the Moon has a lot of material called KREEP (potassium, rare earth elements, phosphorus) that is high in radioactive isotopes and might lead to localized heating in some circumstances. Unfortunately, it will be tough to associate this with any local geology, since there's no indication of where the eruption occurred. Material this small can travel quite a distance in the Moon's weak gravitational field and then could be scattered even farther by impacts. So, it's possible that these belong to features that have been identified as potentially volcanic through orbital images. In the meantime, the increased exploration of the Moon planned for the next few decades should get us more opportunities to see whether similar materials are widespread on the lunar surface. Eventually, that might potentially allow us to identify an area with higher concentrations of volcanic material than one particle in a thousand. Science, 2024. DOI: 10.1126/science.adk6635 (About DOIs). Source RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every single day for many years. 2023: Over 5,800 news posts | 2024 (till end of August): 3,792 news posts