How to make the moon dust into oxygen

In a huge sphere, engineers studied carefully on the equipment. Before they, a silver metal device was laid with colorful wires-they hope to produce oxygen on the moon one day.

Once the team evacuated, the experiment began. Now, box-like machines are ingesting a small amount of dust-dusted ore-dust and sharp mixture of the dust and the chemical composition of the real moon soil.

Soon, that Orgolith is Gloop. The temperature of the first layer was heated to above 1,650 ° C. Moreover, with the addition of some reactions, the molecules containing oxygen start to bubble.

“We have now tested everything we can use on the planet now.” “The next step is to enter the moon.” Said

The experiment of Sera Space was launched at the Johnson Space Center of NASA this summer. This is not the only technology developed by researchers because they have developed a system that can provide astronauts for future lunar calendar bases.

These astronauts will need oxygen breathing, but they can also make rocket fuel for spacecraft. These spacecraft may be launched from the moon and goes farther (including Mars).

Residents of the lunar calendar may also need metals, and they can even harvest this metal from the gray fragments of garbage dust.

To a large extent, it depends on whether we can build a reactor that can effectively extract such resources.

Mr. White said: “This can save billions of dollars in task costs.” He explained that alternatives-bringing a large amount of oxygen and spare metals to the earth-will be arduous and expensive.

Fortunately, moon rocks are full of metal oxides. However, for example, the science of extracting oxide from metal oxides is fully understood on the earth, but it is more difficult to do this on the moon. Especially due to conditions.

The huge spherical room performed the Sera space test in July and August this year, which caused the vacuum and simulated the temperature and pressure of the moon.

The company stated that it must improve the operation of the machine over time so that it can better cope with the extreme sawtooth and grinding texture of the rock itself. Mr. White said: “It is everywhere, wear various mechanisms.”

There is also a crucial thing that you cannot test on the earth and even on the track on the earth, it is the lunar gravity-about one-sixth of the earth. It is not until 2028 or later that the real rockstone can be used under low gravity conditions, and the Sira space can test its system on the moon.

Paul Burke at Johns Hopkins University said that the gravity of the moon may be some real problems unless the engineer design.

In April, he and his colleagues Publish The results of computer simulation are introduced in detail, which shows how the relatively weak gravity of the moon hinders different oxygen extraction processes. The process of studying here is the melting thunderboltic electrolytic, which involves the use of electrical lunar minerals with oxygen -containing oxygen to directly extract oxygen.

The problem is that this technology works by forming oxygen on the surface of the melting rock itself. “This is the consistency of honey. This is very, very sticky.” Dr. Berke said.

“These bubbles will not rise rapidly-actually delayed from the electrode.”

This may have a solution. One may be the vibration oxygen manufacturing machine, which may shake the bubble.

The ultra -smooth electrode may make it easier to get rid of oxygen bubbles. Dr. Berke and his colleagues are now studying such ideas.

Sierra Space technology is a carbon heat process, which is different. In their circumstances, when a bubbles of oxygen -containing bubbles are formed in the rocks, they do this freely instead of on the surface of the electrode. Mr. White said that this means that they are stuck.

Dr. Burke emphasizes the value of oxygen to the future lunar adventure. It is estimated that according to the health and activity level of astronauts, astronauts need to be oxygen contained in about two to three kilograms of regolith every day.

However, the life support system of the lunar base may recycle astronauts’ breathing oxygen. If so, you don’t have to do too much ore to maintain the vitality of the moon.

Dr. Burke added that the real use case for oxygen extraction technology is to provide oxidants for rocket fuel, which can achieve ambitious space exploration.

Obviously, the more resources you can make on the moon, the better.

The Sierra Space system really needs to add some carbon, although the company said that most of the oxygen production cycle can recover most of them.

Together with colleagues, Palak Patel, a doctoral student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, proposed an experimental Molten rock electrolytic systemUsed to extract oxygen and metals from the moon soil.

She said: “From its perspective,” Let’s try to minimize the number of supply tasks’. “

When designing the system, Ms. Patel and her colleagues solved the problem described by Dr. Burke: low gravity may hinder the separation of oxygen bubbles formed on the electrode. To solve this problem, they used a “ultrasound” that exploded the bubbles with sound waves to dispel it.

Ms. Patt said that for example, the future resource extraction machine on the moon can derive the iron, titanium or lithium. These materials may help the lunar base of the moon base or 3D printing parts replaced by parts to cause 3D printing parts.

The usefulness of the lunar calendar is not only there. Ms. Patt pointed out that in a separate experiment, she melted the simulated rock into tough, dark glass -like materials.

She and her colleagues figured out how to turn this kind of material into a solid hollow brick, which is useful for building a structure on the moon– Gorgeous black boulderexplain. why not?