Dr. Chris Salvino is SMEMR's first lunar mining doctoral student

SMEMR doctoral student Dr. Chris Salvino is looking to harness resources from the moon to provide abundant, clean and safe energy. Salvino, who was a trauma surgeon for 30 years and has eight academic degrees in medicine, science and engineering, is pursuing his PhD in mining engineering and founded a company focused on extracting helium-3 from lunar dust.

“He is as comfortable discussing medical risk models as he is debating mining system design or space policy,” said Moe Momayez, SMEMR professor and Salvino’s PhD adviser. “Chris is building a new industry from the ground up. His success could transform lunar mining and inspire more students to pursue advanced degrees in mining.”

Salvino founded Lunar Helium-3 Moon Mining LLC, or LH3M, after learning about helium-3 while pursuing a master's in planetary geology at Arizona State University three years ago. Helium-3 is a promising candidate as fuel for nuclear fusion and other applications like cooling quantum computers. Salvino sees lunar mining of helium-3 as a crucial part of meeting humanity's future needs.

Helium-3 is in short supply on Earth, with supplies measured in mere kilograms; however, lunar dust contains at least a million metric tons, thanks to billions of years of high-energy particles from the sun bombarding the moon's surface. Extracting helium-3 from lunar dust poses many technical and logistical challenges that LH3M is working to overcome. 

“Mining engineers are trained to work where conditions are harsh and unknown," said Salvino. "That skillset translates remarkably well to space.”