Scientists are certain that the lunar surface harbors enormous oxygen reserves that, however, will not be easy to extract from the lunar bowels.
The key is in the regolith. This is the name given to the layer of fine dust that covers the lunar surface, which was formed from the fall of micrometeorites on the upper layer of the Moon. In it, scientists say, there is an oxygen reserve that could make the colonization of our satellite by humans possible.
It is known that the regolith is made up of between 40 and 45 percent oxygen.
Scientists from NASA and the Australian Space Agency therefore designed a special vehicle, which is part of the Artemis mission, in order to explore specifically what are the oxygen reserves that rest in the regolith, and what would be the alternatives to extract it and store it.
A demanding hope
Since the oxygen contained in regolith is strongly attached to the material, it would take large amounts of energy to remove it, says Southern Cross University specialist John Grant.
The extraction procedure would seek to emulate the electrolysis with which, for example, aluminum is produced on Earth.
In the case of regolith, the main product would be precisely oxygen, but to separate it from the other materials contained in lunar rocks, it would be necessary to have sufficient sources of energy, solar or otherwise, in addition to the necessary industrial equipment.
The scientific gamble could pay off spectacularly. In a statistical exercise, Grant calculated that a layer of the total lunar surface and ten meters deep would produce enough oxygen for the subsistence of 8,000 million people over 100,000 years.
Calculations and perspectives
On average, humans need 800 grams of oxygen per day to survive. A single cubic meter of regolith would be enough, according to these numbers, to provide a person with oxygen for two years.
Not only NASA and its Australian counterpart are already on their way to finding a solution to extract oxygen from the regolith.
In Europe, the Belgian-based company Space Applications Services is already building prototype reactors to produce nuclear oxygen. The devices could be installed on the Moon as early as 2025, as part of the projects of the European Space Agency. (I)
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