The day where life on the Moon^[1]
is possible is getting closer and closer. Research by the
University of Glasgow postdoctoral student, Beth
Lomax^[2], has demonstrated that
oxygen can be extracted from lunar soil. 

The oxygen from simulated lunar soil, or regolith, was almost
entirely extracted — leaving a mixture of metal alloys. Both this
metal and the oxygen could be used by future Moon
inhabitants. 

Samples of actual lunar soil were used to determine that lunar
regolith is made of 40 to 45 percent^[3] oxygen by weight, making
it the soil’s most available element. 

RELATED: WHAT WOULD A MARTIAN COLONY
LOOK LIKE?^[4]

How did the team extract the oxygen?

Lomax’s Ph.D. work, supported by the European Space Agency^[5]
(ESA), involved the process of placing the powdered regolith in a
mesh-lined container along with molten calcium chloride salt, which
served as an electrolyte heated to 950 degrees
Celcius.

Congrats to @UofGChem PhD
student Beth Lomax, whose research is featured on the @esa ‘Space in
Images’ page today! Her work on extracting oxygen from lunar soil
could be helpful for future moon colonisation missions. ? https://t.co/VeHQ8H0Wxu pic.twitter.com/4UzimVpcd5^[6][7][8][9]

At this temperature, the regolith remains solid. 

The process took 50 hours,^[11] saw
96% of the oxygen extracted, and involved a
current passing through the regolith. This caused the oxygen to be
extracted and to migrate across the salt and to an anode. 

The first 15 hours alone saw
75% of all the oxygen extracted. 

Lomax said this about the process: “The processing was
performed using a method called molten salt electrolysis. This is
the first example of direct powder-to-powder processing of
solid lunar
regolith simulant that can extract virtually all the
oxygen. Alternative methods of lunar oxygen extraction achieve
significantly lower yields, or require the regolith to be melted
with extreme
temperatures of more than
1600°C.“^[12][13][14]

Adding to this, Lomax said: “This work is based on the FCC
process—from the initials of its Cambridge-based inventors—which
has been scaled up by a UK company called Metalysis for commercial
metal and alloy production.”

She ended with, “This research provides a proof-of-concept
that we can extract and utilise all the oxygen^[15] from lunar regolith,
leaving a potentially useful metallic by-product.”

This before-and-after image shows simulated
lunar soil, or ‘regolith’, having almost all the oxygen extracted
from it, leaving behing metal alloys. In this way, both oxygen and
metals would be available to future #Moon settlers ?
https://t.co/rO9C8jOAfT #ForwardToTheMoon
pic.twitter.com/B8lZBIQRjq^{[16][17][18][19]}

Why is this discovery so important?

“This oxygen is an extremely valuable resource, but it is
chemically bound in the material as oxides in the form of minerals
or glass and is therefore unavailable for immediate use,” said Lomax.^[21]

Even though the research is not finished quite yet, it’s
certainly a step in the right direction for future life in space^[22]. 

“We are working with Metalysis and ESA to translate
this industrial
process^[23] to the lunar
context, and the results so far are very promising,” said Mark Symes^[24], Lomax’s Ph.D.
supervisor at the University of Glasgow.

Furthermore, James Carpenter, ESA’s lunar strategy
officer commented that “This process would give lunar settlers
access to oxygen for fuel and life
support^[25], as well as a wide
range of metal alloys for in-situ manufacturing—the exact feedstock
available, would depend on where on the Moon they land.”

The research was published in September in Science Direct^[26].