Seattle-based Interlune has received a $348,000 grant from NASA to test its system for processing lunar soil on a series of reduced-gravity airplane flights — marking one more small step toward harvesting helium-3 and other resources on the moon.
The project is one of 11 selected for funding through NASA’s TechFlights program, which supports space technology testing on suborbital rockets, rocket-powered landers or airplane-based platforms.
Interlune’s system is known as CRUMBLE — an acronym that stands for “Comminution of Regolith Using Milling for Beneficiation of Lunar Extract.” Basically, the system would break down lunar dirt and rock, or regolith, and make it easier to extract potentially valuable ingredients such as helium-3.
The TechFlights grant will fund parabolic flights provided by Zero Gravity Corp. to see which kinds of equipment would work best in the airless, reduced-gravity conditions present on the moon’s surface. Interlune would use simulated moon dirt to put prototypes for its CRUMBLE processor through their paces.
