{"id":17100,"date":"2025-08-05T19:27:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T11:27:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/interlune-will-team-up-with-astrolab-to-send-a-camera-to-the-moon-for-helium-3-survey\/"},"modified":"2025-08-05T19:27:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T11:27:11","slug":"interlune-will-team-up-with-astrolab-to-send-a-camera-to-the-moon-for-helium-3-survey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/interlune-will-team-up-with-astrolab-to-send-a-camera-to-the-moon-for-helium-3-survey\/","title":{"rendered":"Interlune will team up with Astrolab to send a camera to the moon for helium-3 survey"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full-width\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"630\" height=\"354\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/250805-astrolab-630x354.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-884387\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/250805-astrolab-630x354.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/250805-astrolab-1260x709.jpg 1260w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/250805-astrolab-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/250805-astrolab-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/250805-astrolab.jpg 1600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" class=\"wp-element-caption\">An artist\u2019s conception shows Astrolab\u2019s FLIP rover on the moon. Interlune plans to put a helium-hunting multispectral camera on the rover. (Astrolab Illustration)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Seattle-based Interlune says it\u2019s struck a deal with California-based Astrolab to send a multispectral camera to the moon to estimate how much helium-3 is present in lunar soil.<\/p>\n<p>Interlune\u2019s camera will be one of the payloads aboard Astrolab\u2019s FLEX Lunar Innovation Platform rover, or FLIP for short. The FLIP rover is scheduled to take a piggyback ride to the moon\u2019s south polar region aboard Astrobotics\u2019 Griffin lander as soon as late 2025.<\/p>\n<p>The mission will mark Interlune\u2019s first off-Earth step in its campaign to identify and extract helium-3 from the moon and return it to Earth. Helium-3 can be used for applications ranging from quantum computing to security screening to fusion energy production. But it\u2019s rare on Earth: Interlune has pegged the commercial price of helium-3 at as much as $20 million per kilogram. <\/p>\n<p>Interlune is betting that lunar helium-3, which is produced when charged particles from the sun hit moon dirt, will become a cheaper source \u2014 and a source of revenue for the startup. The multispectral camera that Interlune has developed in partnership with NASA\u2019s Ames Research Center will be used to estimate helium-3 quantities and concentration around Griffin\u2019s landing site, without having to bring samples back to Earth.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"A Look at Astrolab\u2019s FLIP Rover Design\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/UFEMOrg27KE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n<\/figure>\n<p>\u201cThis is our first lunar mission and a seminal milestone toward being the first company to harvest natural resources from space,\u201d Interlune\u2019s co-founder and CEO, Rob Meyerson, said today in a news release. \u201cAstrolab\u2019s ability to provide reliable mobility on the moon to partners like Interlune is the quintessential example of the collaboration and innovation building the lunar economy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Astrolab\u2019s founder and CEO, Jaret Matthews, said his company was \u201cthrilled to be carrying Interlune\u2019s multispectral camera to the moon.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is exactly the kind of mission we built Astrolab for \u2014 delivering breakthrough science to the lunar surface,\u201d Matthews said.<\/p>\n<p>Interlune was founded in 2020 and raised $18 million in seed capital last year. In May, the startup announced that the U.S. Department of Energy and Maybell Quantum Industries would be among its first customers. At the time that announcement was made, Interlune said it would start delivering helium-3 in 2029.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An artist\u2019s conception shows Astrolab\u2019s FLIP rover on the moon. Interlune plans to put a helium-hunting multispectral camera on the rover. (Astrolab Illustration) Seattle-based Interlune says it\u2019s struck a deal with California-based Astrolab to send a multispectral camera to the moon to estimate how much helium-3 is present in lunar soil. Interlune\u2019s camera will be [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[698,4354,4339,625],"class_list":["post-17100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-astrolab","tag-helium-3","tag-interlune","tag-moon"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17100"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17100\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}