Here's your Forbes Daily Briefing bonus story of the week.

Today on Forbes, this startup is racing to be the first to mine helium on the moon.

In the lobby of Interloon, a three-foot-wide tabletop diorama shows an idyllic toy-size version of the mining operation the Seattle startup wants to build on the

moon. Boxy autonomous vehicles scrape up the top layer of lunar dirt and crush it to release gas

containing a valuable form of helium. Solar panels on wheeled platforms generate power. Off to one side,

a box resembling a military missile launcher is loaded with

small rockets designed to carry bottles of the gas back to Earth. What Interlune is trying to do

is far from child's play. Helium 3, an industrial-priced cousin of the isotope of the gas we

use to fill party balloons balloons is rare on Earth.

In 2024, it sold for $2,500 per liter, or roughly $19 million a kilogram,

according to a report from Adel Gas Group.

Interloon CEO Rob Meyerson, who is the former president of Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin, expects an installation

with just five of his mining machines could one day produce at least 10 kilograms of helium

3 a year, worth close to $200 million. However, the company faces daunting hurdles to get there.

Though there is more helium 3 on the moon, it's still far from abundant.

Even if interlune can find lunar regions with higher concentrations, collecting a commercially

viable amount of helium-3 means developing and transporting to the moon, machines that

can chew through millions of tons of regolith, the loose debris

that covers the lunar surface from billions of years of micro-mediorite impacts, autonomously,

with no boots on the ground to repair them as they kick up dust more abrasive than anything on

Earth.

Meyerson told Forbes, quote, that's one of the things we're going to be great at.

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