Goodbye Helium-3 Crisis? This Technology Promises to Multiply Available Reserves
Interlune, a U.S. startup specialized in developing infrastructure for the space economy, has announced an important breakthrough for its Cold Capture technology, a system designed to recover helium-3 from conventional industrial helium.
The company has demonstrated the ability to produce a flow of helium-3 with a purity of 99%, paving the way for a possible new supply source for an extremely rare isotope on Earth. The immediate goal is to address the growing demand for helium-3, particularly for superconducting quantum computer cooling systems. These devices utilize dilution refrigerators that must reach temperatures near absolute zero to allow the operation of quantum circuits. Helium-3 is a critical component of these systems, but its global availability is limited.
Currently, most helium-3 is obtained from tritium decay, a radioactive form of hydrogen accumulated in stocks dating back decades. However, this source is constrained by limited quantities and high costs: rapidly increasing production through new tritium stocks would not be economically sustainable.
According to Interlune, the problem lies not in searching for new helium deposits but in the ability to effectively recover the helium-3 already present, albeit in extremely small amounts, in industrially produced helium flows. Every liter of helium contains traces of the rarest isotope.
The Cold Capture technology addresses this challenge by integrating directly with existing helium liquefaction plants. The system uses cryogenic distillation, exploiting the subtle physical differences between helium-3 and helium-4 at temperatures near absolute zero. The two isotopes are nearly identical chemically, making the separation particularly complex.
"Every liter of helium produced in the world contains residual amounts of helium-3. Cold Capture connects to the existing infrastructure of helium liquefaction plants to recover that helium-3 and turn it into a valuable product," said Rob Meyerson, co-founder and CEO of Interlune.
The company estimates that, if installed in U.S. helium processing plants, the system could generate up to 2.5 kilograms of helium-3 per year. This amount would be sufficient, according to the company's estimates, to triple current national production. In 2025, the United States produced approximately 81 billion liters of gas and grade A helium through various facilities.
The project has also attracted interest from the U.S. defense sector. In November 2025, Interlune received an AFWERX Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Direct-to-Phase II contract from the United States Air Force to accelerate the development of the technology toward industrial production levels. Helium-3 is also used in military research programs involving superconducting quantum systems.
Apart from public funding, Interlune has already entered into future purchase agreements worth nearly $500 million with companies specializing in quantum refrigeration, including Bluefors and Maybell Quantum. The startup has also raised $23 million in venture capital and over $18 million in non-dilutive funding from the U.S. government and other entities.
However, terrestrial production is just the first step in the company's strategy. Interlune's long-term vision involves using the same technology on the Moon to extract helium-3 directly from lunar regolith, the surface material of Earth's natural satellite.
According to scientific estimates, billions of years of exposure to solar wind have deposited significant amounts of helium-3 in the lunar soil. Interlune's idea is to use autonomous machinery capable of collecting large amounts of regolith, heating it to release trapped gases, and then separating the isotopes through cryogenic processes similar to those already tested on Earth.
The company's strategy consists of first validating the technology in a terrestrial environment, thus reducing the risks associated with transferring immature industrial systems to space.