NASA awards Interlune contract for lunar resource-prospecting tools
Updated
Updated · NASA · May 4
NASA awards Interlune contract for lunar resource-prospecting tools
2 articles · Updated · NASA · May 4
The $6.9m, 18-month SBIR Phase III award backs the Seattle company in designing, building and testing engineering units and flight hardware for lunar regolith sampling.
The payload will sort soil particles, extract solar-wind volatile gases and measure them using a mass spectrometer derived from NASA's Kennedy Space Center-developed MSOLO technology.
NASA says the work will support Artemis and commercial lunar missions by advancing in-situ resource use, helping future Moon and Mars explorers rely less on supplies launched from Earth.
Can harvesting lunar soil for fuel and air truly pave the way for permanent human settlements on the Moon and Mars?
With $500M in pre-orders for lunar helium-3, is a new space economy dawning or is it just a speculative bubble?
As nations race to exploit lunar resources, how can a 'wild west' conflict be avoided without clear space mining laws?
Breaking Ground on the Moon: NASA Backs Interlune’s $6.9M Helium-3 Mining Payload for Sustainable Lunar Economy
Overview
In 2026, NASA awarded Interlune a $6.9 million contract to develop the Prospect Moon payload, a low-power system designed to extract valuable resources like helium-3 and water ice from lunar soil. This effort supports Artemis missions that require local resources for extended stays on the Moon. The Prospect Moon mission, planned for 2028, will provide the first on-site measurements of gases released from heated regolith, guiding the design of larger, autonomous harvesters for the early 2030s. Helium-3, abundant on the Moon and vital for clean fusion energy and quantum computing, represents a market valued at over $17 trillion, with the U.S. Department of Energy already committing to purchase lunar-sourced helium-3. Together, these developments are driving the emergence of a sustainable lunar economy fueled by NASA's Artemis program and a booming commercial space sector.