{"id":211541,"date":"2025-05-06T03:24:18","date_gmt":"2025-05-05T17:24:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/?p=859629"},"modified":"2025-05-06T03:24:18","modified_gmt":"2025-05-05T17:24:18","slug":"nasa-kennedy-breathes-life-into-moon-soil-testing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=211541","title":{"rendered":"NASA Kennedy Breathes Life into Moon Soil Testing"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
\n
\"Image<\/a><\/figure>
\n
Researchers with NASA\u2019s Exploration Research and Technology programs conduct molten regolith electrolysis testing inside Swamp Works at NASA\u2019s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Thursday, Dec. 5, 2024.<\/div>\n
NASA\/Kim Shiflett<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

As NASA works to establish a long-term presence on the Moon, researchers have reached a breakthrough by extracting oxygen at a commercial scale from simulated lunar soil at Swamp Works at NASA\u2019s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The achievement moves NASA one step closer to its goal of utilizing resources on the Moon and beyond instead of relying only on supplies shipped from Earth.<\/p>\n

NASA Kennedy researchers in the Exploration Research and Technology<\/a> programs teamed up with Lunar Resources Inc. (LUNAR), a space industrial company in Houston, Texas, to perform molten regolith electrolysis. Researchers used the company\u2019s resource extraction reactor, called LR-1, along with NASA Kennedy\u2019s vacuum chamber. During the recent vacuum chamber testing, molecular oxygen was measured in its pure form along with the production of metals from a batch of dust and rock that simulates lunar soil, often referred to as \u201cregolith,\u201d in the industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the first time NASA has produced molecular oxygen using this process,\u201d said Dr. Annie Meier, molten regolith electrolysis project manager at NASA Kennedy. \u201cThe process of heating up the reactor is like using an elaborate cooking pot. Once the lid is on, we are essentially watching the gas products come out.\u201d<\/p>\n

During testing, the vacuum environment chamber replicated the vacuum pressure of the lunar surface. The extraction reactor heated about 55 pounds (25 kilograms) of simulated regolith up to a temperature of 3100\u00b0F (1700\u00b0C) until it melted. Researchers then passed an electric current through the molten regolith until oxygen in a gas form was separated from the metals of the soil. They measured and collected the molecular oxygen for further study.<\/p>\n

In addition to air for breathing, astronauts could use oxygen from the Moon as a propellant for NASA\u2019s lunar landers and for building essential infrastructure. This practice of in-situ resource utilization<\/a> (ISRU) also decreases the costs of deep space exploration by reducing the number of resupply missions needed from Earth.<\/p>\n

Once the process is perfected on Earth, the reactor and its subsystems can be delivered on future missions to the Moon. Lunar rovers, similar to NASA\u2019s ISRU Pilot Excavator<\/a>, could autonomously gather the regolith to bring back to the reactor system to separate the metals and oxygen.<\/p>\n

\u201cUsing this unique chemical process can produce the oxidizer, which is half of the propellant mix, and it can create vital metals used in the production of solar panels that in turn could power entire lunar base stations,\u201d said Evan Bell, mechanical structures and mechatronics lead at NASA Kennedy.<\/p>\n

Post-test data analysis will help the NASA and LUNAR teams better understand the thermal and chemical function of full-scale molten regolith electrolysis reactors for the lunar surface. The vacuum chamber and reactor also can be upgraded to represent other locations of the lunar environment as well as conditions on Mars for further testing.<\/p>\n

Researchers at NASA Kennedy began developing and testing molten regolith electrolysis reactors in the early 1990s. Swamp Works<\/a> is a hands-on learning environment facility at NASA Kennedy that takes ideas through development and into application to benefit space exploration and everyone living on Earth. From 2019 to 2023, Swamp Works developed an early concept reactor under vacuum conditions named Gaseous Lunar Oxygen from Regolith Electrolysis (GaLORE). Scientists at NASA\u2019s Johnson Space Center in Houston conducted similar testing<\/a> in 2023, removing carbon monoxide from simulated lunar regolith in a vacuum chamber.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe always say that Kennedy Space Center is Earth\u2019s premier spaceport, and this breakthrough in molten regolith electrolysis is just another aspect of us being the pioneers in providing spaceport capabilities on the Moon, Mars, and beyond,\u201d Bell said.<\/p>\n

NASA\u2019s Exploration Research and Technology programs, related laboratories, and research facilities develop technologies that will enable human deep space exploration. NASA\u2019s Game Changing Development program, managed by the agency\u2019s Space Technology Mission Directorate funded the project.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As NASA works to establish a long-term presence on the Moon, researchers have reached a breakthrough by extracting oxygen at a commercial scale from simulated lunar soil at Swamp Works at NASA\u2019s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The achievement moves NASA one step closer to its goal of utilizing resources on the Moon and beyond [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":1,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15596,15942,15717,16584,16512,15624],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-211541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-earths-moon","category-game-changing-development-program","category-kennedy-space-center","category-partner-with-us","category-research-and-technology-at-kennedy-space-center","category-space-technology-mission-directorate"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=211541"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211541\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":212097,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211541\/revisions\/212097"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=211541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=211541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=211541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}