A team of Chinese researchers claims that they have managed to turn samples of lunar regolith into a source of rocket fuel. This discovery could potentially change the rules for future space explorers who hope to use the resources on the Moon to recharge fuel to return to Earth or go to conquer other corners of the Solar System.
Researchers have found that samples of lunar soil can act as a catalyst to convert carbon dioxide and water from astronauts’ bodies and the environment into methane and oxygen. The chemical process is described in detail in an article published in the National Science Review.
“We proposed using a robotic system to automate the electrocatalytic conversion of CO2 and H2O into fuel for spacecraft engines,” said Yuji Xiong, lead author of the study.
Confirmation by experiments
Chinese scientists are building on previous studies that suggested that monthly soil can generate oxygen and fuel, and that this process can be completed using crewless systems even in the absence of astronauts.
In the experiment, the team used samples from the Chinese Chang’e-5 mission, which landed in Inner Mongolia back in December 2020 with lunar soil that had not been delivered to Earth since 1976. Experiments have confirmed that the Moon’s soil effectively acted as a catalyst, converting carbon dioxide into methane and oxygen.
The discovery means that in the near future we can get much better opportunities to conduct longer studies of the lunar surface, and there will also be more power to send a payload to Earth.
Obstacle to obtaining fuel
But there is one big obstacle that still needs to be overcome. Liquefaction of carbon dioxide is not an easy matter. Gas condensation requires a lot of heat, and in frosty conditions on the moon, this can be a problem. Still, it’s an attractive prospect: while the astronauts are preparing to arrive at the future colony on the moon, the autonomous machine will already produce oxygen and fuel for future visitors.
All lunar rock and soil do, however, contain approximately 45 wt% oxygen, combined with metals or nonmetals to form oxides. This oxygen can be extracted if thermal, electrical, or chemical energy is invested to break the chemical bonds. Over twenty different methods have been proposed for oxygen extraction on the Moon.
The short answer is the astronauts and cosmonauts (that means a Russian astronaut) bring oxygen from Earth, and they make oxygen by running electricity through water (this is called electrolysis).
The first task is making breathable air. Surprisingly, this is fairly easy, as the lunar soil is 42% oxygen. Using heat and electricity, this oxygen can be harvested by robots. Already, NASA has developed and field tested prototype robots on Earth capable of fulfilling this role.
The temperature fluctuations on the Moon are also intense, ranging from -248 to 123 degrees Celsius (-414 to 253 degrees Fahrenheit). To make the Moon habitable, we would need to live in shelters. In addition to protecting us from meteorites, radiation and toxic lunar dust, a sealed shelter would allow us to breathe.
That said, there is actually plenty of oxygen on the moon. It just isn't in a gaseous form. Instead it's trapped inside regolith — the layer of rock and fine dust that covers the moon's surface.
A common device used in the production of oxygen and hydrogen in space is the water electrolyser. It uses electricity to split water into oxygen and hydrogen, thereby converting electric energy into chemical energy that can be used as fuel or as an oxygen supply.
Europa, one of Jupiter's 95 moons, generates 1,000 tons of oxygen every 24 hours, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said Monday. It's enough oxygen to keep a million humans breathing each day, but it's substantially less than scientists previously believed existed, researchers said.
Originally Answered: Where did Apollo 11 get all the oxygen for the moon mission? Oxygen was carried in liquid form in tanks; there were two large tanks on the Service Module, which furnished oxygen for the Command Module. The LM had a smaller tank.
The Pragyan rover, part of the mission, has detected several elements near the lunar south pole. While the biggest discovery is that of sulphur in the lunar south polar region It has also detected the presence of aluminium, calcium, iron, chromium, titanium, manganese, silicon, and oxygen.
You would become unconscious within 15 seconds because there's no oxygen. Your blood and body fluids would boil and then freeze because there is little or no air pressure. Your tissues (skin, heart, other internal organs) would expand because of the boiling fluids.
Similar to Earth, Venus experiences a greenhouse effect, trapping heat from the sun and making the planet incredibly hot and inhospitable. The sun's heat breaks down carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide into oxygen atoms and other chemicals, filling Venus's atmosphere with oxygen.
Space suits cannot use normal air -- 78 percent nitrogen, 21 percent oxygen and 1 percent other gases -- because the low pressure would cause dangerously low oxygen concentrations in the lungs and blood, much like climbing Mt. Everest does. So, most space suits provide a pure oxygen atmosphere for breathing.
Habitability. Robert Zubrin has pointed out that Titan possesses an abundance of all the elements necessary to support life, saying "In certain ways, Titan is the most hospitable extraterrestrial world within our solar system for human colonization." The atmosphere contains plentiful nitrogen and methane.
It is the pull of the Moon's gravity on the Earth that holds our planet in place. Without the Moon stabilising our tilt, it is possible that the Earth's tilt could vary wildly. It would move from no tilt (which means no seasons) to a large tilt (which means extreme weather and even ice ages).
Your blood holds enough oxygen for about 15 seconds of brain activity. After that you'd black out, with complete brain death following within three minutes. But if you were rescued in the first 30 seconds, you'd probably have nothing worse than 'love bite'-type bruises over all your skin.
If the lunar crust were deliberately and methodically broken, simulating earthquake and volcanic activity on the planets, some of the stored gases and vapors could be released to form a lunar atmosphere.
Sure. As per the other answers the thing that stops the moon having an atmosphere is the gravity is not strong enough to hold it. however, the moon is only 3.3g/ cm^3, all we need to do is increase its density by a factor of 5 and it will have a comparable gravitational field as earth, and comparable escape velocity.
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