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The Rare Fuel That Could Make Us Mine the Moon
There are about 100 kilograms of helium-3 on planet Earth. The current US reserve is 29 kilograms. Global production runs around 20 kilograms per year. And early estimates put quantum computing demand alone at 300 to 400 kilograms per year. The math doesn't work, which is why people are starting to look at moon mining.
On this episode of Thinking on Paper, we talk with Glen Martin, CEO of the Extraterrestrial Mining Company, about why helium-3 is suddenly one of the most strategically important isotopes on the planet, and why the Moon, with an estimated 1.1 million tons sitting in its lunar regolith, is where the next mining rush is heading.
Martin walks us through what helium-3 actually is, how it gets to the Moon (carried on solar winds and trapped in titanium oxide because the Moon has no magnetosphere to deflect it), and why moon mining looks more like beach combing than the giant-drill image most people picture.
Along the way: why dilution refrigerators for IBM, Google, and Microsoft's quantum computers are already running short on supply, why fusion is the killer app and how two helium-3 atoms fuse without creating radioactive waste, the rise of quantum hybrid data centers as the bridge to fusion deployment, and how a single square kilometer of lunar surface could yield 33 kilograms of helium-3 and remain effectively invisible from Earth.
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šŗ Watch on YouTube
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Timestamps
(00:00) Trailer
(02:45) What is Helium-3, and why are we mining the Moon?
(05:29) Why thereās almost no Helium-3 on Earth, and a million tons on the Moon
(09:01) How Helium-3 could be harvested from lunar dust
(10:33) Fusion without fallout: the clean-energy promise of Helium-3
(13:01) Space-based solar power and fusion: two paths to future energy.
(17:56) How private companies plan to finance Moon mining
(21:52) The new space race: U.S., China, and the competition for lunar fuel
(25:03) Can treaties prevent conflict over Moon resources?
(27:37) AI, autonomy, and the machines that will mine the Moon
(29:31) NASAās commercial lunar payloads and the rise of space infrastructure
(31:08) What lunar regolith tells us about Helium-3 reserves
(33:35) The trillion-dollar question: who profits from space resources?
(36:17) Curiosity, wonder, and the future of human exploration
(40:01) Technology, morality, and the choice to be good
--
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By Mark Fielding and Jeremy GilbertsonThere are about 100 kilograms of helium-3 on planet Earth. The current US reserve is 29 kilograms. Global production runs around 20 kilograms per year. And early estimates put quantum computing demand alone at 300 to 400 kilograms per year. The math doesn't work, which is why people are starting to look at moon mining.
On this episode of Thinking on Paper, we talk with Glen Martin, CEO of the Extraterrestrial Mining Company, about why helium-3 is suddenly one of the most strategically important isotopes on the planet, and why the Moon, with an estimated 1.1 million tons sitting in its lunar regolith, is where the next mining rush is heading.
Martin walks us through what helium-3 actually is, how it gets to the Moon (carried on solar winds and trapped in titanium oxide because the Moon has no magnetosphere to deflect it), and why moon mining looks more like beach combing than the giant-drill image most people picture.
Along the way: why dilution refrigerators for IBM, Google, and Microsoft's quantum computers are already running short on supply, why fusion is the killer app and how two helium-3 atoms fuse without creating radioactive waste, the rise of quantum hybrid data centers as the bridge to fusion deployment, and how a single square kilometer of lunar surface could yield 33 kilograms of helium-3 and remain effectively invisible from Earth.
--
šŗ Watch on YouTube
--
Timestamps
(00:00) Trailer
(02:45) What is Helium-3, and why are we mining the Moon?
(05:29) Why thereās almost no Helium-3 on Earth, and a million tons on the Moon
(09:01) How Helium-3 could be harvested from lunar dust
(10:33) Fusion without fallout: the clean-energy promise of Helium-3
(13:01) Space-based solar power and fusion: two paths to future energy.
(17:56) How private companies plan to finance Moon mining
(21:52) The new space race: U.S., China, and the competition for lunar fuel
(25:03) Can treaties prevent conflict over Moon resources?
(27:37) AI, autonomy, and the machines that will mine the Moon
(29:31) NASAās commercial lunar payloads and the rise of space infrastructure
(31:08) What lunar regolith tells us about Helium-3 reserves
(33:35) The trillion-dollar question: who profits from space resources?
(36:17) Curiosity, wonder, and the future of human exploration
(40:01) Technology, morality, and the choice to be good
--
ā Listen to every podcastā
Follow us on ā Instagramā
Follow us on ā Xā
Follow Mark on ā LinkedInā
Follow Jeremy on ā LinkedInā
Read our ā Substackā
Email: [email protected]--