S8 Ep348: GUEST: Bob Zimmerman. SUMMARY: Zimmerman discusses a private initiative by Black Moon Energy to mine helium-3 on the moon for fusion fuel. He notes they have signed a deal with JPL to send a mapping rover, a venture made possible only because launch costs
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.6 • 2.7K Ratings
🗓️ 21 January 2026
⏱️ 2 minutes
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Summary
GUEST: Bob Zimmerman. SUMMARY: Zimmerman discusses a private initiative by Black Moon Energy to mine helium-3 on the moon for fusion fuel. He notes they have signed a deal with JPL to send a mapping rover, a venture made possible only because launch costs have dropped significantly enough to make space mining conceivable.
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| 0:34.4 | with Indeed. This is John Batchel, conversation with colleague Bob Zimmerman about mining on the moon. |
| 0:42.7 | And the secret to mining on the moon is not to find helium-3 or other exotic materials. |
| 0:49.4 | It's how much it costs to get to the moon. |
| 0:52.0 | Bob makes this straightforward case. |
| 0:54.6 | Make the booster cheaper. |
| 0:56.6 | You have more mining coming up in this century. |
| 1:00.0 | Much more. |
| 1:01.2 | Here's Bob to explain. |
| 1:03.2 | Space mining. |
| 1:04.2 | What is that? |
| 1:05.5 | All right. |
| 1:05.9 | So there is a lot of people who claim that helium-3 will be very powerful of fuel for fusion power. |
| 1:14.9 | And there is no real lot of helium three on the earth, but there's believed to be a lot of helium three on the moon. |
| 1:22.1 | And so there's a mining, a company called Black Moon Energy that says it wants to mine that helium-3 for profit. |
| 1:29.4 | It is now signed a deal with JPL as well as Caltech to build a mini rover to send to the |
| 1:37.4 | moon to map out the helium-3. |
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