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Industrial and agricultural equipment manufacturer Vermeer Corporation has its sights set somewhere far from its Iowa roots: the moon.

What’s going on: Vermeer President and CEO and NAM Executive Committee member Jason Andringa recently went on “The Iowa Business Podcast” to talk about Vermeer’s venture with startup Interlune to mine helium-3—a rare form of helium critical to quantum technology—from the moon.

• “The CEO of Interlune … reached out to me … [about] helium-3, which is valued at $25 million per kilogram, which is a mind-blowing amount of money,” Andringa told the podcast hosts last week.
• The isotope “essentially does not exist on Earth … because the solar wind blocks it, whereas on the moon, there is no atmosphere. So over billions of years, it has accumulated [there] to a parts-per-billion level.”

What they’ll do: The plan is to excavate large quantities of lunar regolith, the material found on the moon’s surface, using Vermeer lunar excavators—and ultimately remove the helium-3 from it for use on Earth.

• “Helium-3 is expected to have a really substantial role to play in both nuclear fusion and also in the cryogenics of quantum computing,” Andringa continued. “So a couple [of] big-time future industries are going to be really dependent on this kind of obscure gas, helium-3.”
• In May 2025, Vermeer and Interlune released a prototype of the excavator, which is “designed to process about 100 metric tons of moon dirt per hour as part of a helium-3 harvesting system” (Axios).

The clock’s on: The Department of Energy has signed a deal with Interlune to purchase helium-3—if the company can deliver before the end of the decade.

Why it would be so important: As it stands, the only way to access helium-3 on Earth “is as a byproduct of other nuclear processes,” Andringa said.

• “When it comes to nuclear fusion, [helium-3] is the perfect fuel … because there’s no radioactive waste whatsoever.”