NASA seeks private companies to turn Moon dust into oxygen

[Alfonso Maruccia]

Forward-looking: NASA is seeking input from potential partners on the feasibility of extracting oxygen from lunar rocks and dust. The US space agency is planning to return humans to the Moon's surface, and for sustained habitation and work, future astronauts will require locally sourced resources.

NASA recently issued a new Request for Information (RFI) for Lunar Infrastructure Foundational Technologies-1 (LIFT-1), inviting collaboration with companies to develop technologies for a sustained human presence on the lunar surface. Interested parties are expected to design, develop, and demonstrate infrastructural technologies. However, NASA's funding for the entire demonstration will not exceed $250 million.

Through the LIFT-1 RFI, NASA is specifically seeking viable concepts capable of extracting, processing, and storing oxygen from lunar regolith – a dusty surface deposit covering solid rocks on the Moon. The proposed solutions should complete these tasks within a single "lunar day," roughly equivalent to one Earth month, and achieve this "without surface human interaction."

Additionally, LIFT-1 is requesting third-party organizations to incorporate all necessary equipment for oxygen extraction onto a single lunar lander. This lander should possess sufficient power to conduct a minimum of three extraction cycles and be equipped with instruments to assess how regolith extraction on the Moon compares to simulated extraction missions on Earth.

In the LIFT-1 proposal, NASA envisions the commencement of commercial space operations with the extraction of tens of metric tons of oxygen per year. In subsequent phases, successful technology demonstrations are expected to evolve into highly functional resource-harvesting systems capable of providing "hundreds to thousands" of metric tons of oxygen, water, and rocket fuel, as well as feedstock for construction and manufacturing.

Last year, NASA identified 13 potential landing sites for future space missions around the Moon's south pole. These sites, highlighted as potential regolith harvesting locations in the LIFT-1 RFI, are believed to contain substantial deposits of hydrogen, water ice, and other substances that could be extracted to support a sustained human presence on the Moon.

While LIFT-1 does not specify a deadline for the feasibility of a working resource-harvesting solution or its implementation during future astronaut missions, the agency has outlined specific requirements. Interested parties are invited to participate in a virtual industry forum on November 13 to engage in discussions on this matter.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/100790-nasa-seeks-private-companies-turn-moon-regolith-oxygen.html

 

[MasterMace]

I've seen this movie before. No Moon Mining.

 

[Uncle Al]

While it is possible I have my doubts that it will be practical, especially if you are talking about larger scale, say for 100 people .....

 

[Freddie159]

While it is possible I have my doubts that it will be practical, especially if you are talking about larger scale, say for 100 people .....

If they get it from the ice it should be fairly easy but getting it from the dirt or "regolith" as they call it would require a much bigger device possibly even one on tracks so it can drive around to the best areas to suck up the dirt. I'm envisioning a street sweeper sized device to do 100 people every day or so depending on how much O2 is in the dirt. A mini fridge sized device should be able to do the job for the test though. Then in practice the rover could go out and hook up to the street sweeper sized device and transfer the O2 to the rover and then back to the moon base. Put a dozen of those things roving around sucking up dirt to extract the O2 and you can keep a whole colony happy. The key for me is they need an intermediate 'space station' because bringing that stuff up from the Earth on a rocket that then has to go to the moon and return is ALOT of fuel, you can cut that by more than half by having an intermediate 'warehouse' where the parts get off loaded then loaded onto something taking them to the moon which then returns to the 'warehouse'.

 

[LetTheWookieWin]

I've seen this movie before. No Moon Mining.

May I ask why?

In the 90’s I attended a lecture by Dr. Harrison Schmitt (Apollo 17 astronaut and geologist) at UW-Madison titled, “Resources from Space”. In it he talked about mining the moon for Helium-3 for use in fusion reactors. It was easily the best and most interesting college lecture I ever attended.

To be frank, I think it’s shortsighted to NOT consider extraplanetary resource extraction. The Chinese are very interested in this, and I for one don’t want my government to abdicate an advanced technology to a hostile nation:

https://thehill.com/opinion/technol...m-the-moon-opening-door-to-future-technology/

 

[Gars]

Pretty pre
moon, as is, cant hold the O2
if their is some tanks to collect and store it, thats a different
but for who?
MJ passed a long time ago

 

[MasterMace]

May I ask why?

In the 90’s I attended a lecture by Dr. Harrison Schmitt (Apollo 17 astronaut and geologist) at UW-Madison titled, “Resources from Space”. In it he talked about mining the moon for Helium-3 for use in fusion reactors. It was easily the best and most interesting college lecture I ever attended.

To be frank, I think it’s shortsighted to NOT consider extraplanetary resource extraction. The Chinese are very interested in this, and I for one don’t want my government to abdicate an advanced technology to a hostile nation:

https://thehill.com/opinion/technol...m-the-moon-opening-door-to-future-technology/

You can consider all the other extraterrestrial objects for mining, but I've seen The Time Machine, I know what happens when you mine the Moon.