As Moon interest heats up, two companies unveil plans for a lunar “harvester” | “Ultimately, we want to build a fleet of electric harvesters.”
https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/03/as-moon-interest-heats-up-two-companies-unveil-plans-for-a-lunar-harvester/
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>The Moon has received a lot of attention in recent months, particularly the surface of Earth’s cold and dusty companion.
>This has largely been driven by a decision from SpaceX founder Elon Musk to pivot, at least in the near term, from Mars to lunar surface activities and the potential for using material there to build large satellites. But there has been a notable shift from NASA, too, which has started talking a lot more about building up elements of a base on the surface rather than an orbiting space station known as the Gateway.
>In short, the world’s most successful space company and the largest space agency have both increased their lunar ambitions, suggesting a greater frequency of missions to the Moon in the coming years.
>For companies that have long-term business plans focused around the surface of the Moon, these are very positive developments. And two of these lunar startups, Astrolab and Interlune, announced Tuesday morning they are forming a partnership amid this favorable environment.
>Astrolab is one of three firms vying to build rovers for NASA’s scientific activities on the surface of the Moon, as well as to provide transportation for its astronauts. But the company has been working with commercial customers as well, and one of the most important long-term ones could be a Helium-3 mining company called Interlune.
I’m unsure that how much valuable resources can be cost effective harvested on the Moon to be able to turn a profit on the moon and can be out weight the costs getting setup.
Scientific research for sure, but not sure it’s going to be the cash cow everyone think is there.
Dune, Part <insert number here>
No plans discussed on how these electric harvesters would survive the lunar night, the death sentence of all electronics on the lunar surface at the moment.
Amazing, we’re now privatizing the moon.
Sure, it won’t happen because it’s not cost-effective and essentially is just a fever dream or out-of-body experiences of some CEOs that feel they can throw money at any problem to make it go away, but if they find a way to profit from it…
Wow this sounds like total BS.
What on earth (pun intended) could be so expensive that we should send to the moon to mine to make cheaper?
The likely case is it’s some company trying to get funding and is hoping people don’t look to closely at their business plan
What the heck are they going to harvest?
Helium-3
Okay, why?
For Cryogenics.
What do you mean “Cryogenics”? You gonna freeze a bunch of old rich dudes or what’s going on?
** crickets**
nobody tell Sam Rockwell.
You mean they don’t want to haul up a coal fired harvester with an oil backup.
This reminds me of a contest in the r/KerbalSpaceProgram sub. The mission was to move a large amount of propellant into low earth orbit. Most people built huge rockets to launch a fuel tank into orbit. But the optimal solution was to send an empty tank to the Moon and use mining and refining to fill it up and send it back to low earth orbit.
Do not harvest or destory the moon. How stupid do you need to be to destory the moon like earth. Wtf?