A European company is perfecting a technology to make oxygen from lunar soil as part of a 2025 European Space Agency (ESA) space mission.
Space Applications Services, based in Belgium, signed a contract with the European Space Agency on May 12 to build three experimental reactors. The reactors will produce oxygen on the moon as part of the In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) air mission in 2025.
Samples returned from the lunar surface confirm that the lunar weathering layer is composed of 40-45% oxygen. Oxygen is an important element in this layer by weight. Beth Lomax, a researcher at the University of Glasgow, explained, “This oxygen is an extremely valuable resource, but it is in the form of oxides, in minerals, and therefore cannot be used directly.”
The oxygen generators will use the FFC Cambridge process, which was developed in the late 1990s. The process is named after its developers, George Chen, Derek Fray and Thomas Farthing, and the University of Cambridge in England, where they worked.
In the lunar environment, the technology will break down lunar clay, which is composed of up to 45 percent oxygen, into metallic alloys and pure oxygen. The lunar clay will be used as the cathode, the cathode where the current enters the electrolysis cell. Oxygen is released in the process. The process uses molten salt electrolysis to extract almost all of the oxygen, leaving some useful metal by-products. It takes a total of 50 hours to extract 96% of the oxygen, but 75% can be extracted in the first 15 hours. (Click here to see images)
Experts say that while carrying a supply of oxygen from Earth is no problem for short-term space travel, or resupply missions. But making oxygen locally will be the key to long-term human activity on any celestial body. The metal alloys left behind after extracting oxygen will not go to waste either. In the future, they could be used to make components for a lunar base or a Mars station.
In addition to the Cambridge FFC method, Space Applications Services is also working on another technique for extracting oxygen from lunar soil: the hydrogen reduction of ilmenite. Ilmenite is a titanium-rich ore that can be found on the Moon.
In addition to sustaining the crew, the oxygen and hydrogen produced on the moon could be used as fuel for further exploration of the solar system, such as trips to Mars.
Space Applications Services recently completed the early design phase of the 2025 aerospace mission, company representatives said in a statement. The European Space Agency’s plan is to purchase all services for the ISRU aerospace mission from commercial providers, including those needed for communications, transportation and operational missions.
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