Washington: Scientists at NASA have successfully extracted oxygen from simulated lunar soil, even as the space agency works toward sending astronauts to the Moon through Artemis missions. Lunar soil refers to the fine-grained material covering the Moon's surface. This was the first time that this extraction has been done in a vacuum environment, paving the way for astronauts to one day extract and use resources in a lunar environment, called in-situ resource utilisation.
Oxygen remains a crucial building block for establishing a long-term presence on the lunar surface. In addition to using oxygen for breathing, it can also be used as a propellant for transportation, helping lunar visitors stay longer and venture farther. "With the successful completion of this demonstration test, NASA has established that oxygen can be extracted from existing lunar material to provide humans with resources critical for survival and transportation on extraterrestrial worlds," the agency said.
NASA's Carbothermal Reduction Demonstration (CaRD) team at Johnson Space Center in Houston conducted the test in conditions similar to those found on the Moon by using a special spherical chamber with a 15-feet diameter called the Dirty Thermal Vacuum Chamber. The chamber is considered "dirty" because unclean samples can be tested inside. The team used a high-powered laser to simulate heat from a solar energy concentrator and melted the lunar soil simulant within a carbothermal reactor. A carbothermal reactor is where the process of heating and extracting the oxygen takes place.
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