Helium is a critical element for chipmaking, medical diagnostics, quantum computing and cryogenics. It could also kickstart fusion energy, which has the potential to deliver reliable, carbon-free power to hundreds of millions of people. However, it’s fairly scarce on Earth, where much of it comes from the decay of nuclear materials.
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Adding to the limited supply chain is potential disruptions due to the conflict in the Middle East. According to Reuters, chipmakers in Malaysia are still operating as normal but they’re monitoring the situation as helium prices rise. Helium is also a crucial part of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), so any supply chain disruptions have the potential to harm patients waiting for critical care.
However, the U.S. Department of Energy has a plan to tap the reserves of Earth’s nearest neighbor. The DOE Isotope Program recently signed a supply contract with Black Moon Energy, a lunar development company that’s come up with a possible means for mining helium on the Moon and then transporting it back to Earth.
Black Moon CEO David Warden said Helium-3 gas will be compressed into transport cylinders and returned at a cost substantially lower than any potential terrestrial supply, without the associated radioactive, operational, and waste challenges. His company hopes that a lunar helium operation can help offset Earth’s supply while meeting the projected demand for quantum computers and fusion power plants.
While Earth’s helium remains difficult and expensive to access, the Moon is sitting on vast accumulations in its regolith (or top layer of rock, soil and dust) that’s built up over billions of years of continuous exposure to solar winds.
But before Black Moon can start shipping lunar helium back home, the company needs to complete a mission to survey the equatorial regions of the Moon, directly sample and analyze lunar regolith to quantify Helium-3 resources, and test excavation and processing procedures. The company is hopeful the mission will create the dataset needed to deliver a commercial-grade resource model for lunar Helium-3 production.
It will likely still be some time before lunar helium can be put to use in the various applications that rely on the element. But Warden said Black Moon’s plan could speed things up by not relying on any breakthrough technologies.
“The rovers, return vehicles and supporting hardware systems are already in production by multiple commercial providers,” he said.
As of now, Black Moon is targeting Helium-3 production at scale within the next eight years.
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