Helium-3 Mining Machine on the Moon's Surface Under Development

We haven't returned to the moon's surface yet because the Artemis IV Mission has been postponed until 2028 at the earliest. The Artemis Mission also has a secondary function of being the first step for humans to establish colonies outside of Earth's surface and therefore lunar vehicles are being developed by several companies.Astrolab is among those trying to win the tender to produce a lunar vehicle for NASA. Now Astrolab and Interlune have announced that they are also developing vehicles that can be used to mine on the moon.The material they want to mine is Helium-3 which can be used as a special fuel for future nuclear fusion power stations. Astrolab will build a small prototype of FLIP first and it will be sent to the moon to see if the amount of Helium-3 is worth mining. Interlune wants to extract this hydrogen isotope from the lunar regolith.FLIP is the size of a go-kart and it will be launched to the moon this year using the Astrobotic Griffin lander. The concentration of Helium-3 in the regolith will be measured using a multispectral camera. Then a van-sized Flexible Logistics and Exploration (FLEX) vehicle will be developed with a 3 m³ payload capacity. The cargo section will carry mining machines developed by Interlune.

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Helium-3 Mining Machine on the Moon's Surface Under Development

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