Although the Moon has no atmosphere, it has a large supply of oxygen, mixed with dust on the surface in the form of oxides.
Last year, scientists published an article on how to extract oxygen from lunar dust (regolith); The first prototype oxygen plant will now attempt to do this extraction on a larger scale.
If the method works, it could provide humans with important resources to aid future missions on the moon, and perhaps even enable the establishment of long-term bases and colonies on our satellite.
P. Carril / ESA
“Having our own equipment allows us to focus on producing oxygen by measuring it with a mass spectrometer as it is extracted from the regolith simulator,” says chemist Beth Lomax of the University of Glasgow in Scotland.
“The ability to obtain oxygen from resources found on the Moon will obviously be extremely beneficial for future lunar settlers, both for breathing and for locally producing rocket fuel.”
The facility, set up at the European Space Research and Technology Center of the European Space Agency in the Netherlands, will use a method developed by Lomax and her colleagues.
Based on the samples of the lunar regolith – loose dust, rocks and dirt from the lunar surface – we know that this material is indeed rich in oxygen. Oxygen accounts for 40 to 45 percent of the weight of the regolith.
Using a replica of lunar regolith made on Earth, called lunar regolith, attempts have been made to figure out how to extract oxygen. Lomax's team changed everything using a technique called molten salt electrolysis.
First, the regolith is placed in a mesh basket. Calcium chloride, an electrolyte, is added and the mixture is heated to about 950 degrees Celsius, the temperature at which the material does not melt. Then an electric current is applied. This extracts oxygen and transfers the salt to the anode, from where it can be easily removed.
Lomax et al., Planetary and Space Science, 2019
This method can extract up to 96 percent of oxygen from the regolith; As an added bonus, the material left over from this process is a mixture of metal alloys.
“This is another useful line of research to find out which of these are the most useful alloys that can be made and which applications can be selected,” says scientist Alexander Meuress of the European Space Agency.
The ultimate goal, of course, is to create an object that could operate on the Moon itself using a real lunar regolith rather than a simulator.
“ESA and NASA are returning to the moon on missions, this time to stay,” said Tommaso Gidini, head of structures, mechanisms and materials at ESA.
'Accordingly, we are shifting our engineering approach to the systematic use of lunar resources in situ. We are working … with the pursuit of a sustainable human presence on the moon and possibly one day on Mars. '
Sources: Photo: NASA
