NASA extracts oxygen from “lunar soil”!

For the first time, scientists have extracted oxygen from an exact replica of moon soil made on Earth, a revolution in space exploration

As NASA works to send astronauts to the moon with the Artemis missions, one of the agency's primary goals is… Establishing a long-term presence on the moon. Resources such as oxygen are essential to making this vision a reality. In addition to using oxygen for breathing, it can also be used as a propellant for transportation, helping astronauts survive longer and plan missions to deep space. Scientists at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston They succeeded in extracting oxygen from simulated lunar soil for the first time. NASA's Carbohydrate Reduction Demonstration (CaRD) team conducted the test under conditions similar to those on the Moon using a special 4.5-meter-diameter spherical chamber called a dirty thermal vacuum chamber.

How was this possible?

The team used a high-powered laser to simulate heat and melt simulated lunar soil inside a carbothermal reactor developed by Sierra Space Corp., of Broomfield, Colorado, for NASA. The carbothermal reactor is where the heating and extraction process takes placeOxygen. Thermal carbon reduction has been used for decades on Earth to produce things like solar panels and steel Production of carbon monoxide or carbon dioxide at high temperatures. After the Earth's temperature rose, the team was able to detect carbon monoxide using a device called a mass spectrometer for monitoring lunar operations (MSolo). A similar device will fly on two upcoming exploration missions to the Moon's south pole: the Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment-1 in 2023, which will help scientists search for water, and NASA's Volatile Polar Exploration (VIPER) rover in November 2024. It explores Mons Mouton, a large, flat-topped ridge, to get a close-up view of the location and concentration of water ice and other potential resources. revolution!

source: globalscience, spaceref

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