Vermeer has developed an excavation process that could complete the first large-scale lunar resource extraction
Here on earth, gravity is an overlooked, yet a tremendously important, factor in excavation.
So, when Vermeer CEO Jason Andringa (who previously worked for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory) was approached to figure out how to excavate in a low gravity environment, he eagerly accepted the challenge.
Interlune, a natural resources company, approached Vermeer to design a method to help extract Helium-3 from the moon.
Helium-3 is extremely scarce on Earth but abundant on the moon. Government and industry have been looking for a new and scalable source of Helium-3 since the United States government identified a severe shortage more than 15 years ago.
“The only means of production is through the decay of nuclear weapons,” said Jacob Keeley, Product Engineer for Vermeer.
“So, to get more of this, you need more nuclear weapons. And that’s not good, right?”
Helium-3, a non-radioactive isotope of helium, is also a byproduct of the sun. Solar winds have scattered the isotope through the solar system, but Earth’s atmosphere deflects most of the particles.
“But on the moon, where there is no atmosphere, it embeds into the soil, into the rock that is there,” Keeley said.
Helium-3 is in high demand for several important industries, including medical imaging, quantum computing, fusion energy and national security.
Interlune aims to be the first company to commercialize natural resources from space, starting with the moon’s Helium-3, which it will sell to commercial and government customers. It’s valued at US$18 to $30 million per kilogram.
The Interlune excavator
To harvesting helium-3 from the moon, Vermeer was tasked with developing a machine capable of ingesting 100 metric tons of moon dirt, or regolith, per hour and return it to the surface in a continuous motion. Last year, they unveiled the first prototype of the Interlune excavator. The latest prototype, which was proven in on-Earth testing, was displayed at Vermeer’s ConExpo booth in March.
“We’ve looked at over 100 different concepts, 100 different ways to go,” Keeley said. “We picked out the ones that looked like they had the best shot, and we built out some test capability to evaluate these concepts at a small scale that could give us useful data.”
The key challenges faced in creating the design were a lack of air, cooling and a lack of gravity.
“The lunar environment is hostile. It’s one of the most brutal job sites around,” Keeley said.
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While the Interlune excavator prototype weighs 9 tonnes on Earth, it will weigh 1.5 tonnes on the moon. So, Vermeer had to develop an excavation process that could push into the surface without disrupting the carrier.
They landed on an auger-style cutter for excavation. The prototype operates continuously and its design reduces tractive force, power consumption and dust compared to traditional trench-digging techniques.
“We can supplement that weight we lost through just a simple mechanical means. We can actually thread ourselves into the ground and pull ourselves in,” Keeley said. “Once we get down to depth, we can then strip out the threads and shear off material.”
The prototype is both diesel-powered and hydraulic, which are both functions that won’t work on the moon. However, the cutting style has proven effective.
“Our role in this is we want to be good at what we’re good at, and that’s moving dirt,” Keeley said.
Excavation is the first in a four-step proprietary system to harvest natural resources from space: excavate, sort, extract and separate.
Astrolab FLEX
Recently, Interlune announced a collaboration with Astrolab, a multi-planetary mobility and logistics company, to integrate Interlune excavation technology onto the Astrolab Flexible Logistics and Exploration Vehicle (FLEX).
The two companies are planning hardware testing at the Interlune Research Lab in Houston, which has developed and tested simulations of moon dirt for R&D.
The project is another step toward Interlune operationalizing its novel system to harvest industrial quantities of natural resources from space, starting with helium-3, which will require a fleet of lunar rovers.
“Reliable, autonomous mobility is crucial to the Interlune harvesting system and broader lunar infrastructure development,” said Rob Meyerson, co-founder and CEO of Interlune. “Astrolab’s FLEX is the right vehicle for the job.”
