2025/06/14 by I. K. Kominis, Kominis, I. K., Charalampos Kosmas +1
Physics and Astronomy · #Applied Physics (physics.app-ph) #Astro and Planetary Science #Atomic Physics (physics.atom-ph) #Atomic and Subatomic Physics Research #FOS: Physical sciences #Instrumentation and Detectors (physics.ins-det) #Planetary Science and Exploration #Space Physics (physics.space-ph)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2506.12386
openalex publication_date 2025/06/14 · openalex created_date 2025/10/18 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Mining 3\rm He from lunar regolith has attracted significant interest in recent years due to the scarcity of 3\rm He on Earth and its diverse applications, from cryogenics and medical imaging, to nuclear physics and future nuclear fusion. Given the stringent technical and economic challenges of mining lunar 3\rm He, precise prospecting is essential. Here we propose a prospecting methodology based on a radio-frequency atomic magnetometer, which can detect the dipolar magnetic field of thermally polarized 3\rm He spins. With a 200 g regolith sample and an rf-magnetometer with sensitivity 1~\rm fT/√(Hz) we can detect 3\rm He with abundance 5 ppb within a measurement time of just 5 min. The associated apparatus is lightweight and significantly more cost-effective than alternative measurement techniques. The proposed prospecting method is readily deployable and could substantially improve the technical and economic feasibility of mining lunar 3\rm He.