Current estimates indicate that the top ten meters of lunar orbit contain enough elemental oxygen to form enough O2 For every person on earth for the next hundred thousand years – more than enough to settle on the moon!
When it comes to the future of space exploration, there are some practices that are essential to mission planners. Most important to them is the concept of using local resources (ISRU), supplying food, water, building materials and other essential elements using local resources. And when it comes to missions to the moon and Mars in the coming years, the ability to collect ice, regularity and other elements is critical to the success of the mission.
In preparation for the Artemis mission, NASA planners are focusing on finding the best way to produce oxygen gas (O2) From all the elemental oxygen trapped in the moon’s surface dust (called the lunar regular). In fact, current estimates show that the top ten meters of the Moon’s regularity contain enough elemental oxygen to produce enough O2 For every person on earth for the next hundred thousand years – more than enough to settle on the moon!
Although the moon has a very sparse atmosphere that contains elemental oxygen, it is so faint that scientists characterize the moon as a “body without air.” But within the lunar regularity, the fine powder and rocks that cover the surface of the moon, there are abundant amounts of oxygen in the rocks and the lunar regularity. This fine dust, also called “lunar dust”, penetrates before the moon and is the result of billions of years of collisions of meteors and comets.
According to John Grant, a lecturer in soil science at Southern Cross University, Australia, the oxygen content in the lunar eclipse is about 45%. But oxygen is bound to oxidized minerals – especially silica, aluminum, iron and magnesium. The isotopic composition of these minerals is almost identical to the minerals on Earth, and this has led to theories that the Earth and Moon systems formed together billions of years ago (the huge collision hypothesis).
But in order for the astronauts and future lunar inhabitants to be able to use this oxygen, it has to be taken out of all this regularity, and it requires a large amount of energy to break off the chemical bonds. On Earth the use of this process (called electrolysis) is common in the production of metals, when an electric current is applied to molten oxides to separate the minerals from the oxygen.
In this case, the oxygen gas is produced as a by-product so that metals can be produced for construction and production. But on the moon, oxygen will be the main product while the metals will be put aside as a by-product that may be useful – most likely for residential construction. As Grant explained in a recent article in The Conservation, the process is simple but there are two major issues with adapting it to space:
“It consumes energy. To be applicable, it will need to be maintained using solar energy or another energy source available on the moon. Sparse oxygen extraction will also require a lot of industrial equipment. We will first need to turn solid metal oxide into a liquid form, using heat, or heat together. “With solvents or electrolytes. We have the technology to do this on Earth, but transporting this equipment to the moon – and producing enough energy to operate it – would be a huge challenge.”