🌝US firm plans to suck helium-3 from moon, 2,000-year-old Egyptian military fortress unearthed, 65-year-old puzzle solved

What if the future of clean energy and even the next leap in quantum computing relies on a gas that’s nearly absent on Earth but relatively abundant on the moon?

That gas is helium-3, and for the first time in history, a private company, Interlune, has not only figured out how to extract it from lunar soil but has also sold it twice. This Seattle-based startup, founded by former Blue Origin president Rob Meyerson, is opening a new chapter in space resource utilization.

Interlune has developed a prototype machine for extracting helium-3 from lunar soil and has already signed two sales agreements: one with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and another with quantum technology company Maybell Quantum. Dive deeper into this Must-Read.

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MUST-READ

🌝 US firm's moon robot to suck up helium-3 and ship it back to Earth

The company claims it will begin supplying helium-3 to its clients by 2029, and each kilogram (~2.2 lbs) will cost a whopping US$20 million. One kilogram of helium-3 occupies a volume of roughly 7,400 liters of the gas when measured at standard temperature and pressure.

Helium-3 (He-3) is a non-radioactive isotope of helium that’s extremely rare on Earth, with only tiny amounts produced as a byproduct in nuclear reactors.

However, over billions of years, the moon’s surface has been slowly enriched with helium-3, thanks to solar winds continuously bombarding the lunar soil. Since the moon lacks a magnetic field to shield it from these winds, helium-3 keeps on accumulating in surface dust.

🏰 Hidden fort, moat unearthed at 2,000-year-old Egyptian military fortress

A tree-lined road leading to Tell Abu Saifi has illuminated the significant activity once present at this formidable military fortress, a key stronghold for ancient Egypt on its eastern border.

For decades, Egyptologists have known of Tell Abu Saifi’s existence; however, recent excavations continue to unearth the secrets buried beneath the sands of time in the Sinai Desert.

Spearheaded by Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, the latest investigation at the site has concentrated on two primary fortresses dating back to the Ptolemaic and Roman periods.

🧩 Chinese mathematicians crack 65-year-old Kervaire invariant mystery

Ending a six-decade-old mathematical mystery with the help of computational methods, a trio of Chinese scientists has proven that manifolds of Kervaire invariant one do exist in dimension 126.

The study—authored by Wang Guozhen and Lin Weinan of Fudan University’s Shanghai Center for Mathematical Sciences, and Xu Zhouli of University of California, Los Angeles—is yet to be peer reviewed.

The Kervaire invariant is a mathematical tool for determining whether certain curved shapes, called smooth framed manifolds, can be transformed into spheres using a method known as ‘surgery’.

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