Seattle-based space resources company Interlune has announced two landmark agreements to supply helium-3, a scarce isotope essential to quantum computing and national security applications. The first agreement designates Maybell Quantum as Interlune’s inaugural commercial customer, committing to purchase thousands of liters of helium-3 annually from 2029 to 2035 to fuel its cryogenic refrigeration systems for quantum computers. Simultaneously, Interlune revealed a separate contract with the U.S. Department of Energy Isotope Program (DOE IP) to deliver three liters of lunar-extracted helium-3 by 2029, marking the first-ever U.S. government purchase of a non-terrestrial natural resource.
Helium-3 is a critical input for dilution refrigerators that cool superconducting qubits to temperatures below 10 millikelvins, hundreds of times colder than deep space. According to Maybell CEO Corban Tillemann-Dick, quantum computing is entering a growth phase in which “hundreds of machines will become thousands, then tens of thousands,” all requiring helium-3 cooling infrastructure. Maybell’s “Big Fridge” platform enables three times the qubit density in one-tenth the space compared to current-generation systems, significantly accelerating commercial quantum deployment.
Interlune’s lunar-sourced helium-3 will be extracted directly from regolith—the Moon’s surface soil—via a pilot plant that will be operational before 2029. This in-situ processing is necessary due to the material’s low concentration and the substantial volume of regolith needed (equivalent to a large swimming pool) to yield even three liters. The company’s proprietary harvesting system is designed to be small, lightweight, and energy-efficient, minimizing launch and operation costs while demonstrating scalable lunar infrastructure.
In addition to its commercial and government contracts, Interlune is also backed by $18 million in venture capital seed funding and has secured support from multiple U.S. agencies, including a NASA TechFlights grant, a DOE IP research award, and a NSF SBIR Phase I grant. These efforts support both terrestrial helium-3 separation and space-based extraction, enabling Interlune to become a dual-source supplier as global demand for helium-3 rises across sectors including quantum computing, nuclear detection, fusion research, and medical imaging.
With these announcements, Interlune positions itself as a first mover in the space resource economy and a foundational supplier to the quantum technology ecosystem. CEO Rob Meyerson emphasized the significance of these developments: “This is how we accelerate real-world impact.” The DOE’s historic lunar procurement, alongside Maybell’s commercial order, signals broad institutional validation of Interlune’s approach and a growing consensus that helium-3 will be central to enabling the next generation of computing and defense capabilities.
Read more in the original releases from Interlune here and here.
May 8, 2025
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