Oxygen on Moon? Nasa seeks major breakthrough

In a major development in space exploration activities, scientists from Nasa have been able to extract oxygen from regolith — lunar soil. It would allow space explorers to use the moon’s surface as a launch pad for their future activities.

The process was carried out by a Johnson Space Center in Houston team, with the help of a high-powered laser to create a carbothermal reaction, they separated life-sustaining oxygen from a lunar soil simulation. For the first time ever, the oxygen was removed within a vacuum environment.

The experiment of Carbothermal Reduction Demonstration (CaRD) could be a base for producing oxygen gas for breathing alongside its uses for transport propellers.

Nasa engineer Anastasia Ford said: “Our team proved the CaRD reactor would survive the lunar surface and successfully extract oxygen.”

Ford also added: “This is a big step for developing the architecture to build sustainable human bases on other planets.”

Nasa has been planning for a long to establish the moon as its operational base for space exploration activities. The Artemis mission is aimed to take humans back to the moon in 2025 after fifty years.

Humans last time put a step on the moon in 1972.

The recent success in the oxygen extraction experiment is regarded at readiness level six which means it is all set to be tested in real space.

Aaron Paz, a senior engineer at Nasa noted that “the technology has the potential to produce several times its own weight in oxygen per year on the lunar surface, which will enable a sustained human presence and lunar economy.”

Earlier in April, Nasa named four astronauts that will fly to the moon on the Artemis II mission — the first crewed lunar flight of the program.

Nasa has already concluded the Orion spacecraft flight — an uncrewed test —which flew the Moon and returned to Earth in November 2022.