Interlune is about to harvest rare elements from the Moon | Rob Meyerson

Devin sits down with Rob Meyerson, the former president of Blue Origin, to talk about his startup, Interlune, that is on track to harvest resources from the Moon’s surface. Interlune is after one element in particular: Helium-3. It’s extremely rare and valuable on Earth, but plentiful on the Moon. So they partnered with an unlikely collaborator to design a “harvester” that they’re planning to send to the Moon’s surface in the early 2030s.

Rob shares how his team designed creative ways to test their prototype in conditions that mirror the Moon’s environment. He tells Devin about the ways his team is turning science fiction into science fact, and about how Interlune is planning to iterate as they go, allowing them to send missions to the Moon sooner.

1:00 Why helium-3 matters

1:38 The helium-3 supply crunch

2:40 Customers and early demand

4:29 Mining at a lunar scale

5:35 Finding an earth partner

6:48 Designing the harvester

9:13 Prototyping to full scale

12:31 Testing for moon conditions

20:18 Earth return and space economy

26:19 Moon timeline