\n<\/p>\n
It’s often better to flesh out technologies fully on Earth’s surface before they’re used in space. That is doubly true if that technology is part of the critical infrastructure keeping astronauts alive on the moon.<\/p>\n
Since that infrastructure will undoubtedly use in-situ resources\u2014known as in-situ resource utilization (ISRU)\u2014developing test beds here on Earth for those ISRU processes is critical to derisking the technologies before they’re used on a mission.<\/p>\n
That’s the plan for a test bed designed by researchers at the German Aerospace Center in Bremen\u2014they designed it to improve how well we gather water and oxygen from lunar regolith. Unfortunately, as their work described in a recent paper published in Frontiers in Space Technologies<\/i> demonstrates, it will be a challenge to do so.<\/p>\n
Water and oxygen are two critical components of any long-term lunar exploration plan. One of the best sources for that on the moon, other than water ice that might only be available at specific locations, is a mineral called ilmenite. Ilmenite is a combination of iron, titanium, and oxygen\u2014FeTiO3<\/sub>. It’s also the most accessible material to split into its parts using a relatively low-energy chemical reaction with elemental hydrogen as a feedstock.<\/p>\n After reducing ilmenite with hydrogen, the resulting elements are iron (useful for building materials), titanium dioxide (useful for optical coatings), and water (useful for plenty of things). A further step could reduce the water to oxygen (again, useful for many things, including breathing) and hydrogen, which can be recycled back into the feedstock system for the following processing round. So, in the end, if you have ilmenite, you have access to cheap building materials, rocket fuel, and gas for breathing.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, ilmenite is not particularly common on the lunar surface. While it is somewhat plentiful in the mare regions, it is much less so in the highlands where the first permanent lunar outposts are planned. So explorers will need a technological solution to find more ilmenite\u2014or at least concentrate it to levels where subjecting it to the reduction process would be energy efficient.<\/p>\n \n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n <\/p>\n