Recent reports estimate that there is enough oxygen contained in the top 33 feet of the moon’s surface for Earth’s 8 billion people for the next 100,000 years!
Although the Moon has an atmosphere, it’s very thin and composed mostly of hydrogen, neon and argon – a gaseous mixture that would not sustain oxygen-dependent humans. But within the regolith, the fine powder and rocks that cover the lunar surface, there is an abundant amount of oxygen. Also known as ‘moondust, this fine dust is the result of billions of years of impacts by meteors and comets.
The Moon’s regolith contains approximately 45% oxygen bound up in oxidized minerals like silica, aluminium, iron and magnesium. For this oxygen to be usable by future astronauts and lunar inhabitants, it needs to be extracted from the regolith. On Earth, the extraction process (known as electrolysis) is commonly used to manufacture metals, where melted-down oxides are subjected to an electrical current to separate the minerals from the oxygen. In this case, oxygen is produced as a by-product so that metals can be produced for construction and fabrication. On the Moon, oxygen would be the main product while the metals would be set aside as a potentially useful by-product, most likely for habitat construction. But the process needs to be energy efficient to be considered sustainable; it would need to be supported by solar energy or other energy sources available on the Moon.
Picture Credit : Google
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