Category Archives: Moon Mining

Tuesday / 28 October 2025

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Lunar Development Cooperative Offers Transnational Framework for Sustainable Lunar Economy

Lunar Development Cooperative (LDC), New York City for-profit multinational public-private partnership proposed by Michael Castle-Miller, an attorney there, aims to enhance 1967 Outer Space Treaty by fostering egalitarian, peaceful and sustainable Moon economy; early investors can buy shares—starting at US$1—via global trading platform, be part of humanity’s lunar “holding company” with ≥51% equity held by private investors, ≤49% by sovereigns around the world; members pay fees based on market value of lunar rights to fund shared infrastructure, e.g. power stations and waste networks; robust rules ensure environmental protection, fair labor and competition, prioritize developing nations / indigenous groups for inclusive resource mining / development

Image Credits: The Lunar Development Cooperative

Friday / 24 October 2025

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ispace Innovation / Cooperation Offers Success Model for Lunar Advancement

ispace, inc. (Japan), developing Moon landers / rovers in HAKUTO-R program, planned to collect lunar regolith for US$5,000 and transfer ownership to NASA — evoking lunar property rights questions; subsidiary ispace-Europe signs 6 Oct US$22M Payload Services Agreement (PSA) with Magna Petra Corp. to deliver (via subsidiary ispace-USA APEX 1.0 lander / micro-rover) NASA MSOLO mass spectrometer for lunar Helium-3 prospecting under Magna Petra-NASA 5 May Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA); ispace signs 5 Sep MoU with Digantara (India) for cislunar awareness and 23 Oct with OrbitAID (India) for refueling, indirectly supporting ISRO-JAXA LUPEX / Chandrayaan-5 mission (JAXA rocket / rover, ISRO lander) launching NET 2028

Image Credits: ispace

Friday / 8 August 2025

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Agreement with Astrolab for Interlune Helium-3 Rover-Mounted Camera

Helium-3 lunar prospector Interlune will mount multispectral, multi-wavelength camera developed with NASA Ames on Astrolab FLEX Lunar Innovation Platform (FLIP) rover, headed to Nobile Crater ~85°S NET Q4 2025 on Astrobotic Griffin-1 lander, to seek titanium-rich ilmenite mineral correlated with helium-3; precursor for NET 2027 dedicated helium-3 mission, privately held Seattle-based Interlune has agreements for purchase by US Department of Energy and Maybell Quantum of Denver CO; estimated price for helium-3 is US$20 million per kg

Image Credits: Astrobotic, Astrolab, Interlune 

Friday / 11 July 2025

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NASA Calls for Scientists to Add Expertise to Artemis III Geology Team; LSIC Advances Moon Missions

Participating Scientists (PS) are needed to supplement knowledge held by current members of Artemis III Geology Team and other NASA Artemis Project teams; applications to be a PS are due August 12; PS will engage in pre-mission planning for Artemis orbital and surface missions, mission operations and post-mission reports; NASA LSIC regularly convenes government, academia and industry to collaborate on technologies for a sustained human presence on the Moon, addressing challenges like power, dust mitigation and construction; online and in-person conferences are held monthly, Fall meeting just announced for Nov 5-6 at Georgia Tech in Atlanta

Credits: NASA

Tuesday / 13 May 2025

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Helium 3 Needed for New Uses: Quantum Computing, Medical Imaging, Fusion Research

Interlune presents prototype excavator produced with Vermeer Corp to extract Helium 3 (3He) from 100,000 kg regolith hourly; US Dept of Energy will buy 3He from ~2 hours of excavation, 3L; Maybell Quantum also signed on to purchase 3He; Apollo 17 Astronaut geologist Jack Schmitt co-founded Interlune to mine 3He; CTO Gary Lau states regolith 3He concentration is between 1:3,000 and 1:10,000 according to samples from Apollo 11, 12, 14, 15, 16 and 17; Company received initial seed funding of $18M

Credits: Interlune, Vermeer; Pictured: Schmitt

Tuesday / 8 April 2025

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ispace-U.S. Calls Together Science Advisors for Lunar Exploration

Lunar exploration company ispace (ispace-U.S.) has formed U.S. Lunar Science Advisory Board (US LSAB) in conjunction with 1 Apr naming of new CEO Elizabeth Kryst; Chair is Alan Stern, former NASA Associate Administrator; Amanda Hendrix, Planetary Science Institute, who studies Moon composition and lunar resources; Philip Metzger, University of Central Florida, who does regolith research; Lisa Gaddis, LPI, has received many NASA awards, does lunar analysis and geology; Jack Burns, Professor Emeritus of both Astrophysics and Physics, served on numerous NASA committees; Clive Neal, Professor of Planetary Geology, has overseen lunar samples, helped train NASA Astronauts

Credit: ispace (Pictured CW from upper left: Metzger, Stern, Burns, Gaddis, Hendrix, Neal) 

Friday / 9 Feb 2024

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Lunar Mining Company Interlune Plans NET 2026 Surface Operations

Interlune of Tacoma WA developing equipment to extract resources from Moon with US$18.19M funds including $246,000 SBIR Phase I grant; Led by former Blue Origin leaders (L-R) Rob Meyerson (CEO), Gary Lai (CTO) and Indra Hornsby (COO, formerly of Rocket Lab), Interlune is reported by TechCrunch to be targeting helium-3 (3He), a resource long considered for radiation-free fusion power and other medical and computing applications whose quantity was measured in Chang’E-5 samples; The company projects the market for 3He will be 4,000 kg / yr by 2040

Credits: Interlune, US Congress, Twitter / @blueorigin, UVic / Brandon Hill

Tuesday / 12 Dec 2023

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ispace and Orbit Fab Partnering on Moon Fuel Extraction and Transport

While working towards HAKUTO-R mission 2 NET 2024 and design of APEX 1.0 with Draper for CLPS CP-12 NET 2026, ispace looking to foster long-term lunar commercial development, signing MoU with Orbit Fab of Lafayette CO on in-space propellant mining / transfer technology maturation with “a series of innovative demonstrations, including resource mapping and ISRU” to be performed; Orbit Fab hopes to grow market for its Rapidly Attachable Fluid Transfer Interface (RAFTI) standard and is preparing to demonstrate 50-kg hydrazine refueling of USSF Tetra-5 utilizing Impulse Space depot Mira NET 2025

Credits: ispace, Orbit Fab

Weekend Edition
Fri-Mon / 17-20 Feb 2023

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Companies Race to Develop and Deploy ISRU Techniques to Extract Building Materials and Oxygen on Moon

Blue Origin is latest entrant in effort to establish manufacturing processes for lunar buildout with Blue Alchemist molten regolith electrolysis extraction of Fe, Al, Si / PV cell & wire printing; Lunar Resources of Houston TX plans FarView Observatory construction via molten oxide electrolysis and is conducting 9-month NIAC feasibility study of MSP pipeline to deliver oxygen gas byproduct; ESA working to develop molten salt electrolysis with Metalysis of UK; Helios of Israel working with Eta Space of Florida on similar system; CO School of Mines to gather lunar prospectors 6-9 June at Lunar Resources Roundtable in Golden

Credits: Blue Origin, NASA, Lunar Resources, Helios, Metalysis

Weekend Edition
Fri-Mon / 13-16 Jan 2023

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As ispace Progresses Towards Moon, Significance of Planned First Lunar Mining Transaction Grows

Hakuto-R lander currently ~1,340,000km from Earth while ispace Mission Control working to execute series of deep space control maneuvers by late March in preparation for orbital insertion and first commercial soft landing in Atlas Crater (47.5°N, 44.4°E) NET late April; In addition to gathering environmental data and demonstrating various technologies, Hakuto-R Mission 1 to set precedent on commercial resource extraction by gathering regolith for sale to NASA under US$5,000 contract; Transaction sanctioned under US Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act of 2015, Japan Space Resources Act of 2021

Credits: ispace, MBRSC