Demonstrating Lunar Oxygen Production with the Carbothermal Regolith Reduction Process

Abstract

The utilization of extraterrestrial resources will be a key element in space exploration and permanent human presence on the Moon. The development and operation of in-situ manufacturing plants are required to enable the establishment of permanent bases on the Moon. Oxygen for life support and propulsion applications will likely be the first lunar ISRU product. Fortunately the Moon is comprised of a variety of oxygen-bearing minerals, providing a virtually unlimited quantity of raw material which can be processed to produce oxygen. One attractive method to extract oxygen from the lunar regolith is the carbothermal reduction process. The carbothermal reduction process is not sensitive to variations in the mineral composition of the lunar regolith. It also creates other valuable resources within the processed regolith, such as iron and silicon. This paper discusses recent development work conducted through the “Integrated In-Situ Resource Utilization for Human Exploration – Propellant Production for the Moon and Beyond” aka PILOT project. The PILOT project is part of the NASA OPTIMA program that is bringing together hardware developed under separate technology development projects for integrated testing. The OPTIMA test program will utilize a modular technology suite of ISRU excavation, oxygen extraction, oxygen storage, and oxygen distribution hardware. All of the hardware utilized by OPTIMA is sized to be consistent with the Constellation draft requirement for oxygen extraction from regolith for the early lunar outpost (1 MT O2/year). The OPTIMA integrated testing will accomplish end-to-end, dust to thrust integrated testing of different technology options to reach stored oxygen starting from lunar regolith simulant.