Europe wants to mine the moon for... oxygen

"Scientists will develop a novel device that will help in the extraction of oxygen in space. This would be obtained from the surface of the moon.

 

The solution is based on the European Space Agency (ESA), which hopes that this technology will be implemented in the next few years. ESA has already selected a team that will design and build such a device - it's the Thales Alenia Space team from the UK, Britain. The plan is that the "mining" machines will help provide future space missions with oxygen, which would be used not only by the crews to breathe, but also as a rocket propulsion.

 

The fact that such solutions are possible is evidenced by the performance of NASA. The Moxie device created by the agency last year. flew to Mars. The equipment was on board the Perseverance rover and made the first extraction of this type. Thales Alenia Space is to develop a small-scale test device that will only help ESA assess whether the use of this type of technology will be feasible on a larger scale in the future. The full-size model will be sent to the moon aboard the ESA lander in the early 1930s. The machine will be able to extract 50-100 grams of oxygen from the lunar regolith at a time (extraction efficiency would be around 70%), with 5 g of oxygen being sufficient for approx. 10 minutes of breathing for astronauts. The equipment is to be powered by solar energy.

 

ESA hopes that the implementation of this technology and the exploration of the lunar rocks in order to obtain metals will in the future change and make space "explorers" independent of costly and time-consuming supplies from Earth."