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Space & Astronomy

New facility to produce oxygen from Moon dust

By T.K. Randall
January 22, 2020 · Comment icon 11 comments

Another step towards a sustained human presence on the Moon. Image Credit: NASA/SAIC/Pat Rawlings
A new technique could help make it possible for humans to live on the lunar surface in the not-too-distant future.
In order for mankind to live on the Moon or Mars without having to rely on resources sent from Earth, it will be of critical importance to be able to produce the essentials - such as water and oxygen - from the natural resources available on those worlds.

To this end, scientists at the University of Glasgow in Scotland have come up with a way to produce oxygen from the regolith found on the Moon using a method known as molten salt electrolysis.

It is not the first such technique to have been developed, but it is the most promising, given that alternatives are generally too difficult, too destructive or produce far too little yield to be worth it.

The new method also has the added benefit of producing metal alloys as a waste product.
So far it has proven effective at producing oxygen using a simulant of lunar regolith and plans are now in motion to set up the first ever prototype large-scale oxygen plant at the European Space Agency's European Space Research and Technology Center in the Netherlands.

"Having our own facility allows us to focus on oxygen production, measuring it with a mass spectrometer as it is extracted from the regolith simulant," said chemist Beth Lomax.

"Being able to acquire oxygen from resources found on the Moon would obviously be hugely useful for future lunar settlers, both for breathing and in the local production of rocket fuel."

If everything goes to plan, the team's efforts could lead to the development of a facility that can be set up on the Moon itself to supply future lunar dwellers with all the oxygen they need.

"ESA and NASA are heading back to the Moon with crewed missions, this time with a view towards staying," said ESA's Tommaso Ghidini. "Accordingly we're shifting our engineering approach to a systematic use of lunar resources in-situ."

Source: Science Alert | Comments (11)




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Recent comments on this story
Comment icon #2 Posted by Piney 5 years ago
No, your thinking of solar radiation. 
Comment icon #3 Posted by XenoFish 5 years ago
Like I said, stupid question. 
Comment icon #4 Posted by Piney 5 years ago
No question is stupid.  
Comment icon #5 Posted by Waspie_Dwarf 5 years ago
  This^^ In fact this is a particularly good question as lunar soil does emit radioactive particles. Piney is right, the main radiation threat on the moon is from solar radiation and cosmic rays.Radiation reaches the surface because there is no protective atmosphere or magnetic field. When energetic cosmic rays hit the lunar soil they cause a reaction and the soil releases secondary radiation in the form of protons. The soil itself is not particularly radioactive (remember it has been handled by Apollo astronauts and scientists). In fact it is actually good protection against solar and cosmic... [More]
Comment icon #6 Posted by joc 5 years ago
Okay then...because I have another one.   If you are on the moon...how do you get calcium chloride salt to become molten (950 C) when the surface temp only reaches 127 C?  Solar energy?  
Comment icon #7 Posted by Waspie_Dwarf 5 years ago
The same way you would on Earth, heat it using electricity. How the electricity is generated is largely irrelevant, it could be by solar power or NASA has a new, small, nuclear reactor for generating power on the Moon/Mars. If you are using solar power you are going to need a lot of storage batteries as a lunar night is two weeks long.
Comment icon #8 Posted by joc 5 years ago
Comment icon #9 Posted by XenoFish 5 years ago
Could this be used in conjunction with a lunar "greenhouse"? 
Comment icon #10 Posted by Jon the frog 5 years ago
it need to be a crazy heavy gas to not be blown away...
Comment icon #11 Posted by Jon the frog 5 years ago
The '' regolith simulant'' part make me think of testing it on site before relying on it to survive...


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