The European Space Agency (ESA) has fired up its prototype oxygen plant to begin producing the element out of simulated moondust, with a view to creating a sustainable breathable air production facility on the Moon.
“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,” says Beth Lomax of the University of Glasgow, a researcher working on the prototype at the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC).
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Great article! I love it.
Allow me to be the miracle maker. The process is actually very simple.
Metal oxides (presumably from meteorites) are made from metal and oxygen.
Very similar to the rust found here on earth.
The aluminum foil in your kitchen is coated with a thin layer of aluminum oxide.
If this is heated to a high enough temperature, the oxygen is released back into the air and the layer remaining is pure aluminum again.
The same can be done with common rust to recover the iron and other metals.
By encapsulating the metals in molten salt, oxides are prevented from reforming as the metals cool, resulting in relatively pure alloys.
These alloys can be further refined to extract each individual metal.
Betman wouldn’t bet on this one, if you ask him… 😉
I must admit, I am amazed! all the problems that exist here are ignored and "oxygen" can be extracted from "Moon Dust". Will the hubris of man-kind ever wake up and realize the problems here?