NASA gears up for manned lunar outposts
K.S. RAJGOPAL
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The project looks at making oxygen from lunar rocks
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NASA has recently concluded nearly two weeks of testing equipment and lunar rover concepts on Hawaii’s volcanic soil. The agency’s In Situ Resource Utilization Project, which studies ways astronauts can use resources found at landing sites, demonstrated how people might prospect for resources on the moon and make their own oxygen from lunar rocks and soil.
Valuable information
The tests helped NASA gain valuable information about systems that could enable a sustainable and affordable lunar outpost by minimizing the amount of water and oxygen that must be transported from Earth.
The Pacific International Space Center for Exploration Systems, known as PISCES and based at the University of Hawaii, Hilo, hosted the tests.
NASA’s lunar exploration plan currently projects that on-site lunar resources could generate one to two metric tons of oxygen annually.
This is roughly the amount of oxygen that four to six people living at a lunar outpost might breathe in a year.
When queried on how the oxygen will be extracted from lunar soil, NASA spokesperson Grey Hautaluoma, in an email to this correspondent, explained, “In the reduction process, hydrogen is combined with soil, heated and shaken.
The hydrogen breaks the bonds of metallic oxides and the end product is water, which is then stored until oxygen is needed. Through electrolysis, a current breaks apart the hydrogen and oxygen. The oxygen is stored and the hydrogen returns to the processing system.”
Hydrogen will be brought in from leftover fuel from the descent stage of the lunar lander.
The field demonstrations in Hawaii showed how lunar materials might be extracted. They also showcased the hydrogen reduction system used to manufacture oxygen from those materials and how the oxygen would be stored.
A prototype system combines a polar prospecting rover and a drill specifically designed to penetrate the harsh lunar soil.
Soil collection
The rover’s system demonstrates small-scale oxygen production from soil. A NASA-developed robotic excavator known as Cratos collected soil for the oxygen system.
In addition to tests in laboratories and rock yards, NASA conducts tests at sites around the world known as analogs because they simulate the moonscape and other extreme environments.
Why was Hawaii chosen as one of the locales for testing? Mr. Hautaluoma answered “Hawaii’s volcanic terrain, rock distribution and soil materials provide a high-quality simulation of the moon’s polar region. Hawaii’s volcanic soil is very similar to regolith, the moon’s soil.”
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