The European Space Agency (ESA) It plans to build an oxygen farm on the moon to help astronauts breathe in outer space. The agency has selected a winner to be the first to build a payload whose mission will be to extract oxygen from the lunar surface, according to a new European Space Agency report.
led Thales Alenia area in the UK, the winning team must produce a small instrument capable of evaluating the likelihood of building larger plants on the Moon. According to the report, the purpose of these lunar plants is to “Extraction of spacecraft fuel and breathing air for astronauts – as well as mineral raw materials for equipment“.
This instrument will run on solar energy and also need to provide accurate measurements of performance and gas concentrations.
David Baines, engineer ESA Concurrent Design Facility Systems, The European Space Agency’s main assessment center for future space missions and industrial analysis said:The payload would have to be compact, low-powered, and capable of flying a variety of potential lunar landers.”
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In addition to meeting all of the above criteria, the team’s payload vehicle must be able to complete these missions in one lunar day, which is equivalent to a 12-day period on Earth.
Previous studies by the European Space Agency have already shown that the most abundant element on the surface of lunar soil is oxygen, which accounts for about 40 to 45%.
However, the process of removing this component is not as easy as it seems, since oxygen is chemically bonded to other elements in the form of metals or glass.
A typical oxygen plant has been installed in ESTEC Laboratory of Electrical Materials and Components Facilitated this procedure, extracting essential resources for long-term and sustainable space missions.
“The ability to extract oxygen from lunar rocks, along with usable minerals, would be a game-changer in lunar exploration.Baines said. Finally, I announce that the team is looking forward to working with the winning association.”To turn your project into a practical reality“.
He noted that this feat would allow international astronauts to live far from Earth without the need for expensive ground supply lines.
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