Lunar Oxygen Production - A Maturing Technology

Abstract

Research on oxygen production from lunar rock and soil has made significant progress in the past two years. An extensive series of experiments on natural and synthetic analogs has concentrated on high-temperature reduction by hydrogen gas. The first oxygen production experiments using actual lunar basalt, mare soil, and volcanic glass have been completed. These experiments support predictions of oxygen yield from lunar, materials, based on chemical and mineralogical composition. Large samples of lunar soil simulant have been tested, and show the feasibility of scaling up oxygen production to the size of a lunar demonstration plant.