They are testing a machine that would generate water and oxygen for future inhabitants of the Moon

One of the biggest problems with living off Earth, in a space base on the Moon, is the provision of water and oxygen for astronauts.

But that would not pose a problem according to a new experiment carried out by engineers of the European Space Agency (ESA) who tested a machine for separate the water and oxygen from the lunar regolith, the material abundant on the moon.

Experts added hydrogen and methane to a mineral mixture that simulated lunar soil and heated in an oven to temperatures as high as 1,830 degrees Fahrenheit, vaporizing the substance. After “washing” the resulting gases with hydrogen, the water was separated using a catalytic converter and a condenser, then extracted with oxygen by electrolysis. In real applications, the methane and hydrogen by-products would then be recycled back into the system.

“Our experiences show that the platform is scalable and can operate in a closed loop almost completely autonomous, without human intervention and without getting bogged down.” said Michèle Lavagna, an aerospace engineer at Politecnico di Milano, who led the experiments. Half of the lunar soil is made up of oxides of iron and silicon, which make up about a quarter of oxygen.

Lavagna was part of a consortium of scientists from the European Space Agency, the Italian Space Agency and the German aerospace company OHB that demonstrated a prototype this week at the annual meeting of the Europlanet Scientific Congress, which took place virtually. The two-step process is similar to that already used on Earth, but is adapted to work with a mixture of minerals that approximates the surface of the moon.

Rich in silica and metals, the solid byproduct created by the process could be further refined for other uses, the scientists said. “The ability to have efficient water and oxygen production facilities is essential for human exploration and for performing high quality science directly on the moon,” Lavagna said in the statement.

“These lab experiments have deepened our understanding of each step of the process,” he added. “It’s not the end of the story, but it’s a good starting point,” he said. This week’s demonstration is just the latest in a series of experiments being conducted to “optimize furnace temperature, gas mixture ratio and other factors,” the statement said. The researcher’s analysis indicated that treating the soil in small batches at the highest possible temperature produces the best results.

Other researchers have also worked to obtain oxygen from the lunar soil. In 2017, Thorsten Denk, an aerospace engineer from the Almería solar platform in Spain, revealed his plans for a reactor that would do the job. Denk’s device only requires hydrogen brought in from Earth for its initial use; after the first few hours, it would recycle the item, greatly reducing the weight of the load.

He claimed his machine produced enough oxygen and water to supply six to eight astronauts. Water is already plentiful on the moon, albeit in a different state. A 2018 study published in Nature Geoscience determined that water, in the form of OH, a more reactive relative of H2O, was all over the lunar surface rather than clumping at the poles. This means that future lunar colonies could collect water without having to bring it back from Earth.

Engineers who develop ways to provide oxygen, water, shelter, and other necessities of life on the moon are hampered by the difficulty and cost of sending materials into space.

The cost of putting anything in space is around $ 10,000 a pound, according to the Nasa. Last week, scientists from Manchester University unveiled designs for a concrete-like building material made, in part, human blood, urine and sweat .

Mixed with the earth on Mars or on the Moon, the glue-like substance called AstroCrete, would create a building material 300% stronger than regular concrete, according to their magazine report Today Organic Materials. Each astronaut could produce enough droppings to expand their habitat and support an additional crew member.

The team calculated that a crew of six astronauts could produce more than 1,100 pounds of high-strength AstroCrete during a two-year mission to Mars.

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