ESA researchers built a plant that can extract oxygen from the moon
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ESA researchers built a plant that can extract oxygen from the moon
With an abundance of moon dust, we could see a sustainable habitat built on the moon within our lifetime
The final frontier: European scientist are hoping they can send an oxygen plant to the moon for a sustainable long-term mission. The facility would convert moon dust into breathable oxygen for the settlers. The mission is still quite far out, but the team hopes to have a viable demonstration of the technology by the middle of this decade.
European Space Agency (ESA) researchers have begun extracting oxygen from simulated moon dust. A reclamation plant has been built at the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in the Netherlands that can remove and harness oxygen from lunar regolith. The process leaves behind a mixture of metal alloys, which might also be recycled.
The ESA envisions the oxygen and leftover byproducts being used by lunar settlers.
Simulated lunar soil before (left) and after (right) oxygen extraction
"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," notes Beth Lomax, lead researcher from the University of Glasgow. "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."
While the researchers currently use simulated regolith because of the rarity of actual samples, tests with small amounts of returned moon dust show that it is made up of about 40-45 percent oxygen. It is, in fact, the most abundant element in the material, but is chemically bound to oxides.
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