Overview
- Interlune, which announced the SBIR Phase III award Monday, will build the Prospect Moon payload under NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate to prepare for a 2028 lunar flight.
- Prospect Moon is designed to scoop, sort, and heat lunar soil to release and measure gases like helium-3 and hydrogen using a robotic arm, thermal processing, a multispectral camera, and a mass spectrometer, in what the company says would be a first-of-its-kind in-situ measurement.
- The 18-month effort funds engineering units and flight hardware now, with lander integration targeted for fall 2027 and a ride to the Moon on a commercial robotic lander in 2028, with a preference for equatorial sites.
- Interlune says it has nearly $500 million in helium-3 purchase orders from the U.S. Department of Energy and quantum firms such as Bluefors and Maybell Quantum, and it is developing a method to extract trace helium-3 from industrial helium on Earth to meet near-term deliveries.
- Leaders frame the mission as a proof-of-concept that informs larger systems, with CEO Rob Meyerson projecting any meaningful lunar harvesting in the early 2030s, and the company’s earlier Crescent Moon camera is already headed to Astrolab’s FLIP rover for launch later this year.