Now Reading
Making air out of moondust

Making air out of moondust

On the left side of this before and after image is a pile of simulated lunar soil, or regolith; on the right is the same pile after essentially all the oxygen has been extracted from it, leaving a mixture of metal alloys. Both the oxygen and metal could be used in future by settlers on the Moon.

Article Highlights
  • ESA’s technical heart has begun to produce oxygen out of simulated moondust
  • A prototype oxygen plant has been set up in the Materials and Electrical Components Laboratory of the European Space Research and Technology Centre, ESTEC, based in Noordwijk in the Netherlands
  • “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.”
  • Samples returned from the lunar surface confirm that lunar regolith is made up of 40–45% percent oxygen by weight, its single most abundant element. But this oxygen is bound up chemically as oxides in the form of minerals or glass, so is unavailable for immediate use
  • The oxygen plant runs silently, with the oxygen produced in the process is vented into an exhaust pipe for now, but will be stored after future upgrades of the system
  • The ultimate aim would be to design a ‘pilot plant’ that could operate sustainably on the Moon, with the first technology demonstration targeted for the mid-2020s

The Latest Updates from Bing News & Google News

Go deeper with Bing News on:
Molten salt electrolysis
Go deeper with Google Headlines on:
Molten salt electrolysis

[google_news title=”” keyword=”molten salt electrolysis” num_posts=”5″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]

Go deeper with Bing News on:
Making air out of moondust
Go deeper with Google Headlines on:
Making air out of moondust

[google_news title=”” keyword=”making air out of moondust” num_posts=”5″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]

What's Your Reaction?
Don't Like it!
0
I Like it!
0
Scroll To Top