US start-up seeks miners in race for $20 quadrillion moon resource

It sounds so far-fetched as to be something out of science fiction: robots mining on the moon.But there’s one very big incentive to make this lunar extraction dream come true – money, lots and lots of money.Not millions of dollars: miners don’t get out of bed for that.Not billions; not even trillions.“We’re talking 20 quadrillion dollars of helium-3, at the current market price, is present on the moon,” said Gary Lai, chief technology officer of moon mining start-up Interlune, based in Seattle.Interlune wants to begin experimental moon digs as soon as 2028.

And, the firm has told news.com.au in the US, it needs Australia’s help to dig up the moon’s very, very valuable dirt.The pursuit of helium-3 on the moon has been rubbished in the past as literal “moonshine.” But the US isn’t the only country keen on helium-3 – China wants in, potentially setting up a superpower battle for one of the rarest and most valuable substances known to man.Most of us will be familiar with helium: a gas so light it makes balloons float.More practically, it is used in the huge magnets of MRI scanners and in the production of microchips, among other uses.Helium-3, an isotope of helium, is a whole other level of high tech usefulness.

It’s an essential part of super cool fridges that are needed for quantum computers.Abundant helium-3 could revolutionise quantum computing.

It could potentially also be used in low radioactive nuclear fusion reactors, which could dramatically change power generation.Helium-3 could improve MRI scanning imagery and it can even sniff out smuggled nuclear material.Helium is relatively easy to find on earth.

Helium-3 is not.It comprises just 0.000137 per cent of helium.

On Earth, it is chiefly harvested from decaying tritium, which is used in nuclear weapons.And nukes are not the easiest thing to get access too.No surprise, then, that much of the current helium-3 stock is stockpiled by the US government – which has the nukes – with...